Our Street Elm

For the longest time I assumed this was an American Elm, one of the lucky ones to have survived Dutch Elm Disease. But a few years back two people suggested it was a Red Elm. One of the tells between these two species is how near the ground the trunk splits into branches: American Elms, the once stately avenue trees, branched high up, the trunks forming simple and elegant columns; Red Elms, like the tree in our front yard, branch earlier.

Shortly after moving to Northfield, I bought a pamphlet at a local garage sale entitled The Trees of Northfield self-published by Harvey E. Stork of Carleton College in 1948. This pamphlet contains a survey of the trees found along Northfield streets. Since this was thirteen years before the first reported case of Dutch Elm Disease in Minnesota, American Elms were the most numerous tree.

Posted on February 2, 2017 03:22 AM by scottking