Hybrids of hope

Once the hallmark of a rural idyll, our English elms were almost eradicated by a devastating fungal disease, but a new cultivation aims to secure their survival, finds Andrew Martin

- Andrew Martin

PERHAPS more so than any other feature, the English landscape is characterised by its trees. It's the impenetrable thickets of blackthorn and hawthorn, billowing with delicate spring blossom. The solitary veteran oaks, punctuating graceful parklands with their ancient, crooked boughs. The formal majesty of an avenue of purposeful limes. Then, there are the innumerable street trees-the quiet sentinels of our villages and towns. Together, these eclectic individuals make up the fabric of the modern British landscape, as they have done for millennia. In more recent times, however, there has been one irrevocable omission: devastated by disease, our elms have all but disappeared.

Within living memory, so many of our hedgerows, lanes and parks were awash with elm trees. Several varieties once thrived here, but it's the eponymous English elm (Ulmus minor 'Atinia'-thought to have been introduced by the Romans about 2,000 years ago) that often carries the most weight in the collective national memory. Those that remember them recall graceful giants, often exceeding 100ft in height, casting a vast, deep shade in their wake. Upon reaching the full greatness of maturity, the English elm was long admired for its figure-of-eight form, its lower canopy tapering inwards to create the narrow 'waist' of the tree, before erupting outwards again at the top.

For centuries, the elm was a mainstay of folklore and art. Somewhat ominously, given its eventual fate, it also had the undesirable association of death, its water-resistant qualities making it a favoured choice for coffin wood. Yet those with an artistic eye were enamoured with it. Few more so than John Constable, who would immortalise the distinctive beauty of mature elm within The Hay Wain, an artwork that for many of us remains the definitive image of rural England. Undeniably, these trees always possessed the power to captivate and inspire, but it wasn't to last.