Ulmus Glabra - Notable Trees

Notable Trees

The UK Champion listed in The Tree Register of the British Isles (TROBI) is at Brahan in the Scottish Highlands ; it has a girth of 703 cm (2.23 m d.b.h.) and a height of 24 m . Outside the Brighton area, among the rare survivors in the south of England (2010) is a mature tree at the University College sports ground, Abingdon Road, Oxford. Notable specimens in Edinburgh are to be found (2010) in Moray Place, Learmonth Gardens, Queen Street Gardens and The Meadows area.

E. M. Forster cites a particular Wych-elm tree sixteen times in his novel “Howards End.” This tree overhangs the house of the title and is said to have a “....girth, that a dozen men could not have spanned,..” Forster describes the Wych-elm tree as “...an English tree” and that it “...was a comrade, bending over the house, strength and adventure in its roots.” The Wych-elm of the novel had pigs teeth embedded in the trunk by country people long ago and it was said that chewing some of the bark could cure tooth ache. In keeping with the novel's epigraph, "Only connect...", the Wych-elm may be seen by some as a symbol of the connection of humans to the earth. Margaret, the novel's protagonist, fears that any “....westerly gale might blow the wych-elm down and bring the end of all things...” Note: Curiously, the tree is changed to a chestnut in the 1991 film adaptation of Howards End.