American Elm, Ulmus americana
Two beautiful Neighbourhood American Elms are the winners this year. These elms are beloved icons in their neighbourhood: one located at 63 Alice Street in the Ward and the other at the corner of Bagot and London Street in the Onward Willow area. The enormous “Alice Street Elm”, a boundary tree in the Ward, is a survivor in an urban landscape that would have claimed the lives of many other less vigorous trees. The magnificent elm on the property at the west end of London Street, a city-owned tree, is the reason the owner purchased the home. Both trees tower majestically over nearby houses and streets, a testament to the age and durability of these native American Elms.
Elms are striking street trees whose vase like shape, 100-foot height, and robust health graced the landscape until many were claimed by Dutch Elm Disease starting in the mid-1900’s. This imported fungal disease, carried by Elm Bark Beetles, attacked trees as they reached “puberty” or thereafter and only a few survived. But some trees appear to have a natural genetic tolerance to the disease including this year’s award winners. They have continued to shade their neighbourhoods with their immense canopies, while sequestering carbon and providing habitat for many creatures, to name just a few of their benefits.
The presence of these surviving elm trees in Guelph is especially significant as The Arboretum at the University of Guelph is the home of the Elm Recovery Project. In 1990’s, the late Henry Kock started collecting samples from many of these survivor trees, both in Guelph and across southern Ontario. These samples were tested to identify “disease-tolerant” individuals. A gene bank of clones of these survivors now grow in a seed orchard where they share pollen and produce seeds to maintain genetic diversity and strengthen the species’ gene pool. Through future distribution of trees tested at the Arboretum, these remarkable trees will grow and cross-pollinate to produce many more beautiful, disease-tolerant elms to grace our landscape in the years to come.
To learn more about the project and the Henry Kock Tree Recovery Endowment, please visit the Elm Recovery Project Website at https://arboretum.uoguelph.ca/researchandstewardship/elmrecovery.
