The elm cultivar Ulmus 'Myrtifolia', the Myrtle-leaved Elm, first appeared in nursery and horticultural lists from the 1830s, as Ulmus myrtifolia and Ulmus campestris myrtifolia,[1][2][3] the name Ulmus myrtifolia Volxem being used at Kew Gardens from 1880.[4] Lawson's nursery of Edinburgh appears to have been the earliest to list the tree.[1] 'Myrtifolia' was listed by Nicholson in Kew Hand-List Trees & Shrubs (1896), but without description.[5] It was later listed as a cultivar and described by Rehder in 1939[4] and by Krüssmann in 1962.[6]
The specimen under this name in the Herb. Nicholson at Kew was considered by Melville to be a probable U. minor × Ulmus minor 'Plotii' hybrid.[7]
'Myrtifolia' was described as having leaves ovate or rhombic-ovate to oblong-ovate, 2–5 cm long with nearly simple teeth, loosely pilose on both sides. The petiole is 2 to 4 mm long, the samarae 12 to 15 mm long.
Cultivation
A 'Mytifolia' was present in North Road, Bath in 1902.[8] There were specimens at Arnold Arboretum in the mid-20th century, sourced in the 1920s from a tree in Cleveland, Ohio.[4]
The tree is not known to remain in cultivation.
Putative specimen
A small, slow-growing, dense-crowned old elm (15 m, girth 2 m), with very small narrow myrtle-like leaves, stands near 90 Lower Granton Rd, Edinburgh (2016), in a garden that was once part of the elm-planted grounds of Wardie House (demolished 1955).[9]Ulmus campestris myrtifolia appeared in the lists of the adjacent Wardie Nursery (Lawson Nursery group) in the late 19th century,[3] and Ulmus myrtifolia in the Lawson's of Edinburgh lists from the 1830s.[10] Its leaves, which flush and fall late,[11] are lance-shaped or oval (2–4.5 cm by 1.3–2 cm; petioles 0.5–1 cm). The tree, which has smooth branchlets, has been grafted on to a suberose U. minor stock.