American Elm Tree

Facts about American Elm Tree, "Scientific name foe American Elm Tree is Ulmus americana". American elm is a tree variety that belongs to the genus Ulmus of the Ulmaceae family. The American Elm Trees are native to the eastern parts of North America. The American Elm Tree is also commonly called as the water elm or the white elm, and they can be largely found from the western parts of Nova Scotia to Montana and Alberta. They can also be seen in the southern parts of Florida and in the central part of Texas.

Features of American Elm Tree

The American Elm Tree is a very strong tree that can endure winter temperatures as stumpy as −44 F (−42 C). It is a deciduous hermaphroditic tree which is capable of growing to a height more than 100 feet (30 m), with a trunk diameter more than 4 feet (1.2 m), supporting a high, widening canopy similar to an umbrella.

The leaves of the American elm tree are alternate, with the length ranging from 2 3/4 inches to 8 inches (7 cm to 20 cm), with double-notch margins and an oblique bottom.

The American elm tree offers flowers during the early spring earlier than the emergence of leaves. The flowers of the American Elm Tree are small in size, and appear with purple-brown in color, and they are being wind-pollinated, and apetalous. The flowers are as well, protogynous, which means that the female flowers get matured earlier than the male flowers, thus dipping, but not abolishing, self-fertilization.

The fruit of the American elm tree is a smooth samara, with the length of 3/4 inches (2 cm) and a breadth of 7/16 inches (1.5 cm), with a round papery wing.

The single seed of the American elm tree surrounding the fruit has a diameter ranging from 1/8 inches to 3/16 inches (4 mm to 5 mm). The seeds and the flowers of the American Elm Tree are borne on the stems with the length between 13/32 inches and 1 3/16 inches (1 cm and 3 cm). The American elm tree is completely insensitive to the photoperiod or the daylight length, and will continue to develop well into autumn pending injured by cold.

The American elm tree occurs in a variety of habitats in nature, and the most especial habitats being rich bottomlands, stream banks, floodplains, and marshy ground, even though it as well, habitually flourishes on uplands, hillsides, and other well-exhausted soils. On the supplementary elevated environment, such as the Appalachian Mountains, the American Elm Tree is most often seen along rivers.

The wind-scattered seeds of the American elm tree facilitate it to spread quickly as suitable regions of habitat become accessible. The American Elm Tree constructs its seed crop during late spring that can be as before as February and as delayed as June, according to the type of weather. Usually, the seeds of the American Elm Tree germinate immediately without the necessity of cold stratification, but occasionally some may remain inactive, pending the following year.

The American elm tree attains its maximum growth possible in the northeastern parts of the United States, whereas the American Elm Tree varieties in Texas and the Deep South develop much smaller and they boast shorter lifetime, even though conversely their endurance rate in Texas and the Deep South regions is higher, owing to the type of weather being unfavorable for the scattering of seeds.

The minimum lifespan of the American elm tree is 250 years.