Ulmus × hollandica 'Vegeta'

In areas unaffected by Dutch elm disease, Huntingdon Elms commonly grow to over 35 m, bearing long, straight branches ascending from a short bole 10 mm long, which distinguish the tree from the Wych Elm, and are very distinctly asymmetric at the base, Image:Huntingdon Elm leaves.jpg|'Vegeta' leaves; note long petioles. Southsea Common File:Ulmus x hollandica 'Vegeta' (scanned on A4 sheet). Osney churchyard, Botley Road, Oxford (1).jpg|'Vegeta' leaves, Osney churchyard, Botley Road, Oxford File:Ulmus x hollandica 'Vegeta' (scanned on A4 sheet). Osney churchyard, Botley Road, Oxford (2).jpg|Underside File:Ulmus x hollandica 'Vegeta'. North Merchiston Cemetery, Edinburgh.jpg|'Vegeta' foliage, North Merchiston Cemetery, Edinburgh Image:Hunt. Elm bark 1.jpg|'Vegeta' bark; note lattice pattern File:Ulmus x hollandica 'Vegeta'. Bark of old tree. Inverleith Park.jpg|Bark of 'Vegeta', Inverleith Park, Edinburgh File:Ulmus x hollandica 'Vegeta'. Samarae of true North Merchiston Cemetery (1).jpg|'Vegeta' samarae, showing seed close to notch File:Ulmus x hollandica 'Vegeta'. North entrance to Meadows.jpg|'Vegeta' fruiting, The Meadows, Edinburgh ==Pests and diseases==

The tree was one of four European cultivars found by researchers in The Netherlands to be resistant to the initial strain of Dutch elm disease, Ophiostoma ulmi, prevalent in the 1920s and '30s, the others being 'Monumentalis' Rinz, 'Berardii' and 'Exoniensis'. The four were rated less resistant than U. foliacea clone 23, from Spain, later cultivated as 'Christine Buisman'. 'Vegeta' has, however, only a marginal resistance to the later, three times more lethal strain, Ophiostoma novo-ulmi. ==Cultivation==

The tree was widely planted in England, particularly between the end of the nineteenth century and the 1930s, and by the Ulrich nursery of Warsaw as U. montana vegeta, whence it was introduced to Eastern Europe, surviving there in several arboreta. Introduced to the US, it appeared in the catalogues of Hovey's nursery of Boston, Massachusetts, from the 1850s, as Ulmus glabra vegeta, 'Huntingdon Elm', as U. vegeta in the 1902 catalogue of the Bobbink and Atkins nursery, Rutherford, New Jersey, and as U. Huntingdoni in the catalogues of Kelsey's, New York, and of the Plumfield Nursery of Fremont, Nebraska, where it was described as 'one of the finest of this family'. It was planted at the Dominion Arboretum, Ottawa, in 1893 as U. montana Huntingdoni, Also introduced to Australasia (to Victoria in 1865), the tree was marketed by several Australian nurseries in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Owing to its resistance to the original strain of Dutch elm disease, 'Vegeta' was planted in large numbers across Amsterdam after the Second World War as a replacement for 'Belgica' (Belgian Elm), but was itself eventually replaced by the Dutch cultivar 'Dodoens' following the arrival of the more lethal strain of DED in the early 1970s. The tree is still occasionally cultivated in the Netherlands. Seven were planted in 2019 in Randweg, Nederhorst den Berg, as part of Wijdemeren City Council's elm collection. The two planted there c.1970 (in Spiegelweg) remain healthy. File:EDIN-BG-1989-01.A.jpg|'Vegeta' in Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (1989) File:Ulmus x hollandica 'Vegeta'. Charlotte Square, Edinburgh.jpg|'Vegeta', autumn colours, Charlotte Square, Edinburgh (2016) File:Ulmus x hollandica 'Vegeta'. Young tree. Holyrood Park.jpg|'Vegeta' fruiting, Holyrood Park, Edinburgh (2016) Image:Huntingdon Elm Southsea Common 2.jpg|Wind-pruned 'Vegeta', Southsea Common (2007) File:Healesville Hotel.JPG|'Vegeta', Healesville, Victoria (2010) File:Ulmus × hollandica 'Vegeta', Yarborough Crescent, Lincoln.jpg|'Vegeta' in Lincoln (2016) Image:Huntingdon elm.jpg|Pruned 'Vegeta' in Hove Park, East Sussex (2006) File:Wegbeplanting, iepen, zuid-willemsvaart, Bestanddeelnr 164-0489.jpg|'Vegeta', Zuid-Willemsvaart, the Netherlands (mid 20th century) ==Notable trees==

The UK TROBI Champion grew at Higham Ferrers in Northamptonshire, measuring 28 m high by 167 cm d.b.h. in 1999 but was felled in 2014; another at Courteenhall in the same county measured 166 cm d.b.h. In London, many examples still survive, notably around the Millfields Recreation Ground, the largest measuring 31 m high by 88 cm d.b.h.; others can be found at Hackney, two in Gibson Square, Islington, and one in Westminster known as The Marylebone Elm. Several dozen planted in the 1920s survive on Southsea Common in Portsmouth, isolated from disease by the sea and urban sprawl. Lincoln has five examples on Yarborough Crescent and in Hull there are four on Brunswick Avenue. One tree survives at the foot of Ladies Mile, Bristol. Another elm is located in Sheffield, as a street tree on the corner of Chelsea Road, and known locally as the Chelsea Elm. In Wales, one very large tree (NT number 771, last recorded in 1995) stood in the grounds of Powis Castle, near Welshpool; others have been reported from Abergavenny and Caernarfon. Edinburgh has several of note, in The Meadows and Bruntsfield Links, in Inverleith Park, Fettes College, and Abercromby Place. In Éire, 'Vegeta' is represented by a tree at the Kildangan Stud, Kildangan. Notable plantings in Australia include the Avenue of Honour in Ballarat, and Brisbane Avenue, Canberra. Mature specimens line the main street in Healesville, Victoria. Some very large specimens survive in New Zealand, notably in Auckland where it is considered "the finest of all the elms" in that city. The 16 trees planted in 1922 around the rotunda at Auckland Zoo were described as "magnificent... with stately crowns and spreading, drooping branches". =='Vegeta'-like hybrids==

F1 hybrids between Wych and Field Elm (e.g. Huntingdon Elm) are fully fertile, but produce widely variant progeny. An elm at Magdalen College, Oxford, long believed to be a wych elm, then identified by Elwes as a 'Vegeta'-type hybrid, was for a time the largest elm known in Britain before it was blown down in 1911 (see under U. × hollandica). An old 'Vegeta'-type hybrid (girth 4.5 m) stood until 2021 at the University College sports ground, Abingdon Road, Oxford. Bean noted that hybrids similar to Huntingdon occur naturally in parts of east-central England and may have been raised by nurseries and distributed, and that the raising and distributing of saplings from the seed of Huntingdon will have produced elms similar to, but not the true Huntingdon clone. File:AZ0116. Unknown Ulmus. University College elm, Oxford. from S.jpg|Old 'Vegeta'-type hybrid, University College sports ground, Abingdon Road, Oxford (2017) File:AZ0116. Unknown Ulmus. University College elm, Oxford. bark.jpg|Bark of University College elm, Oxford File:AZ0116. Unknown Ulmus. University College elm, Oxford. leaves undersides.jpg|Autumn leaves of University College elm File:Ulmus x hollandica - Gayfield Square, Edinburgh.jpg|U. × hollandica, Gayfield Square, Edinburgh File:Leaves & bark of Ulmus x hollandica, Gayfield Square, Edinburgh.jpg|Bole of Gayfield Square elm File:Leaves of Ulmus x hollandica - Gayfield Square, Edinburgh.jpg|Leaves of Gayfield Square elm ==Synonymy==

• Ulmus huntingdonensis: Dieck (Zöschen, Germany) Haupt-catalog der Obst- und gehölzbaumschulen des ritterguts Zöschen bei Merseburg supplement 1, 1887, p. 28. • Ulmus huntingdonii Hort.: Rehder, in Bailey, The standard cyclopedia of horticulture 6: 3411, 1917, in synonymy. ==Hybrid cultivars==

• 'Commelin' • U.'260' (Ulmus pumila × 'Vegeta'), raised at Wageningen but never commercially released; a few specimens survive as part of the Brighton & Hove CC NCCPG Elm Collection at Happy Valley Park, Woodingdean, and in the Netherlands five were planted on the Overmeerseweg and Dammerweg in Nederhorst den Berg in 2015 as part of Wijdemeren City Council's elm collection. ==Accessions==

North America • Holden Arboretum, US. Acc. no. 70–128 • Morton Arboretum, US. Acc. nos. 593–30, 71–70 • New York Botanical Garden, US. Acc. no. 529/89 • United States National Arboretum, Washington D.C., US. Acc. no. PI38492 Europe • Bodnant Garden, Conwy, UK. No accession details. • Brighton & Hove City Council, UK. NCCPG Elm Collection *Hortus Botanicus Nationalis, Salaspils, Latvia. One tree, planted 1998, acc. no. 18127. • Rainis Park, Liepāja, Latvia. Two trees, planted before 1994. • Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, UK. Acc. no. 19699364 • Westonbirt Arboretum [https://web.archive.org/web/20071012033321/http://forestry.gov.uk/forestry/infd-62qk8w, Tetbury, Glos., UK. Two trees, one without planting date or acc. no., the other planted 2001, acc. no. 1999/118. Australasia • Avenue of Honour, Ballarat, Australia. Details not known. • Box Hill, (central plantation), Victoria, Australia. Details not known. • Colac Botanic Gardens, Australia. Details not known. • Eastwoodhill Arboretum Gisborne, New Zealand. 3 trees, details not known. • Fawkner Park, South Yarra, Australia. Details not known. • Kyneton Botanic Gardens, Kyneton, Australia. Details not known. • Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne [http://www.rbg.vic.gov.au, Australia • Waite Arboretum , University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia. Acc. no. 336 ==Nurseries==

Australasia • Established Tree Transplanters Pty. Ltd., Wandin, Victoria, Australia. Europe • Noordplant [http://www.noordplant.nl, Glimmen, Netherlands. ==References==