Ulmus parvifolia

Species: Ulmus parvifolia

English Name: Small-leaved Elm

Chinese Name: 榔榆

Family: Ulmaceae

Description:

Trees, to 25 m tall, d.b.h. to 100 cm, deciduous. Crown broadly orbicular. Bark gray to grayish brown, ± smooth, exfoliating into irregular scale-like flakes. Branchlets dark brown, densely pubescent when young, never winged. Winter buds reddish brown, ovoid-orbicular, glabrous. Petiole 2-6 mm, pubescent; leaf blade lanceolate-ovate to narrowly elliptic, lamina on two sides of midvein unequal in length and width, 2.5-5 × 1-2 cm, thick, abaxially pea green and pubescent when young, adaxially dark green, lustrous, and pubescent only on midvein, base oblique, margin obtusely and irregularly simply serrate, apex acute to obtuse; midvein depressed; secondary veins 10-15 on each side of midvein. Inflorescences fascicled cymes, 3-6-flowered. Pedicel very short, pubescent. Perianth funnelform; tepals 4. Samaras tan to brown, occasionally dark red-brown, elliptic to ovate-elliptic, 10-13 × 6-8 mm, glabrous except for pubescence on stigmatic surface in notch; stalk 1-3 mm, shorter than perianth, sparsely pubescent; perianth persistent or tardily deciduous. Seed at center or toward apex of samara. Fl. and fr. Aug-Oct. 2n = 28.

Photos used under a Creative Commons license

References:

– Wu ZY, Raven PH, Hong DY (eds) (2003). Flora of China, Volume 5: Ulmaceae through Basellaceae. Science Press, Beijing, and Missouri Bot Garden Press, St. Louis