LACEBARK ELM
File Size: 88 KB
 
Ulmus parvifolia  Jacq.
Riley County, Kansas
Height: Trees, to 82 feet
Family: Ulmaceae - Elm Family
Flowering Period:   September,October
Also Called: Chinese elm.
Trunks: Trunk erect; bark gray, exfoliating in irregular tan, brown, and orange plates; wood reddish brown, hard.
Twigs: Tan to brown, glabrous, glabrate, or minutely pubescent, flexible; leaf scars half-round; buds reddish brown, cylindric-ovoid, .12 to .16 inch, scales minutely pubescent, margins ciliate.
Leaves: Deciduous, alternate, simple; stipules caducous, oblanceolate, .06 to .24 inch; petiole .08 to .3 inch, glabrous or minutely pubescent; blade elliptic to ovate or obovate, 1.4 to 2.4 inches long, .6 to 1 inch wide, base obliquely rounded, margins 1(-2)-serrate, apex acute, lower surface light green, glabrate, upper surface dark green, glabrous.
Flowers: Inflorescences axillary on branches of previous year; fascicles, 2-8-flowered; peduncles 0 to .06 inch; pedicels .08 to .16 inch, more or less equal, nearly glabrous. Flowers bisexual, radially symmetric; sepals (3-)4-5, connate, calyx tube reddish brown, bell-shaped, .06 to .08 inch, glabrous; petals absent; stamens 3-4, .04 to .06 inch; pistil 1; styles 2, distinct; stigmas 2.
Fruit: October-November; samaras, green to light brown, elliptic to ovate, flat, .35 to .55 inch long, .2 to .4 inch wide, surfaces glabrous, margins glabrous, apex notched, tips overlapping; seed 1, yellowish brown to brown, compressed-ovoid, .16 to .2 inch long, .12 to .16 inch wide, smooth.
Habitat: Urban woodlots and greenspaces, pastures, former mined lands, disturbed sites.
Distribution: Scattered in the wild in the east 1/2 of Kansas
Origin: Naturalized
Comments: Ulmus parvifolia is a fast-growing tree that has gained popularity in recent decades in Kansas as a shade tree. In some parts of the United States, it has become widely naturalized and weedy. As it becomes more widely planted, it likely will increase in abundance in the wild in Kansas. Lacebark elm flowers in the fall rather than in the spring.

Lacebark elm leaves
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Riley County, Kansas
Lacebark elm leaves and inflorescences
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Riley County, Kansas
Lacebark elm bark
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Riley County, Kansas
Lacebark elm buds
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Riley County, Kansas
Lacebark elm fruit
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Riley County, Kansas
Lacebark elm leaves
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Riley County, Kansas
Lacebark elm fruit
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Riley County, Kansas
Lacebark elm habit
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Riley County, Kansas