Ulmus 'Purpurea'

Of Ulmus Stricta Purpurea Wood wrote (1851): "When young, the foliage is dark purple, in the way of the Purple Beech. As the season advances, it becomes somewhat greener, but always retains a distinct and peculiar character." 'Purpurea' grows to > 25 m in height, and is short-trunked with open, straggling, ascending branches. The leaf-buds are long, sharply pointed and dark purple, on shoots of the same colour. The flowers, too, emerge a uniform dark purple. The fruit, tinged purple over the seed, is intermediate between U. glabra and U. minor. The leaves, which are slightly folded, have a brief purplish-green flush in spring. The new leaves of lower bole-shoots and of suckers are pure dark purple, without any green. After the spring flush, the leaves become olive green then darken in the summer. Their underside is paler, so that, with their increasing fold as the year progresses, the late-summer foliage has a greyish look. The bark of younger trees has a reddish-brown hue. File:AZ0016. Ulmus Purpurea samarae. Warriston Cemetery, Edinburgh.jpg|'Purpurea' samarae, confirming hybridity File:AZ0016. Ulmus Purpurea new bole-shoots. Warriston Cemetery, Edinburgh.jpg|New bole-shoots File:AZ0016. Ulmus Purpurea (dark purple). Warriston Cemetery, Edinburgh.jpg|Low bole-shoots File:AZ0016. Ulmus Purpurea new canopy-leaves. Warriston Cemetery, Edinburgh.jpg|New canopy-leaves File:AZ0016. Ulmus Purpurea in May, army or olive green. Warriston Cemetery, Edinburgh.jpg|Olive green canopy, May File:Ulmus glabra 'Atropurpurea'.JPG|Summer foliage, Brighton File:Leaves of Ulmus 'Purpurea'.jpg|Pressed leaves, August File:AZ0016. Ulmus Purpurea bark. Warriston Cemetery, Edinburgh.jpg|Bark ==Pests and diseases==

The tree is susceptible to Dutch elm disease. ==Cultivation==

'Purpurea' Hort. was in cultivation in Europe from the 1860s. Later, U. × hollandica 'Purpurascens' was "produced in quantity" by nurseries in Oudenbosch, the Netherlands. It is still present in Sweden,) in their plant conservation programme. Introduced to the USA in the late 1860s as Ulmus stricta purpurea, 'Purple leaved elm' was stocked by the Mount Hope Nursery (also known as Ellwanger and Barry) of Rochester, New York. An U. campestris purpurea, 'Purple-leaved English Elm', of "compact upright growth" with "leaves a purple color in May and June", appeared in the 1902 catalogue of the Bobbink and Atkins nursery, Rutherford, New Jersey, and an U. stricta purpurea, also called 'Purple-leaved English Elm', "a tree with erect branches and purplish-red leaves", in both Bobbink and Atkins' 1902 catalogue and Kelsey's 1904 catalogue, New York. An elm obtained in 1922 from H. Kohankie & Son is listed by the Morton Arboretum, Illinois, as Ulmus procera 'Purpurea', but without description. Its leaves do not flush purple. In arboretum photographs (2011) its bark and form do not appear to resemble hybrid 'Purpurea'. In Australia cultivars by the name of U. glabra Huds. 'Purpurea', U. procera 'Purpurea' and U. purpurea appear in nursery catalogues dating from 1882; these are now believed to be synonymous with the clone in cultivation there as U. × hollandica 'Purpurascens'. 'Purpurascens' was sold by Searl's Garden Emporium, Sydney at the beginning of the 20th century and was "quite widely" planted in the south-east of the country, where it is said to tolerate dry conditions. File:Ulmus montana, With., L. var. purpurea. State Nursery, Campbelltown.jpg|'Purpurea', State Nursery, Campbelltown, New South Wales, 1908 ==Notable trees==

A large specimen stands in Warriston Cemetery, Edinburgh (middle level). Six of the seven mature specimens growing there were felled in the 1990s; the seventh, near the east gate, remains healthy (2019) (height 20 m, bole-girth 2.2 m; labelled 03159 CEM). (Ignorance of this cultivar may have occasioned unnecessary felling: the tree's naturally upcurled, greyish foliage in late summer may be mistaken for foliage affected by Dutch elm disease.) A vigorous sucker in the cemetery has now become an established tree. In the Netherlands an old specimen, supplied by De Reebock nurseries in Oudenaarde, Belgium, stood until c.2010 in the Burgemeester Mijnlieffstraat in the town of Anna Paulowna. In Australia the Avenue of Honour at Wallan, Victoria, was planted solely with 'Purpurascens' in the early 1920s, most of which survive, and the cultivar was also included in the Avenue of Honour in Ballarat in 1918. A large old purple-flushing elm stands in the gardens of the Hedvig Eleonora Church, Östermalm, Stockholm, with foliage appearing to match the hybrid purple elms in Edinburgh and Brighton. File:Ulmus 'Purpurea'. Hedvig Eleonora kyrka 2014 10.jpg|Hedvig Eleonora Church purple-leaved elm, Stockholm, 2014 File:Anna Paulowna - Kerk.JPG|'Purpurascens' (left), Ned. Herv. Kerk, Burgemeester Mijnlieffstraat, Anna Paulowna, 2010 ==Synonymy==

• Ulmus montana (: glabra) var. atropurpurea: Elwes and Henry • Ulmus x hollandica 'Purpurascens': Fontaine, Dendroflora No.5 (1968) • ?Ulmus campestris (: minor) 'Purpurea': Kirchner • ?Ulmus procera 'Purpurea': Morton Arboretum Catalogue 2006. ==Accessions==

Europe • Brighton & Hove City Council, UK. NCCPG elm collection . • Grange Farm Arboretum, Sutton St. James, Spalding, Lincolnshire, UK. As U. glabra 'Purpurea'. Acc. no. 1068. • RBG Wakehurst Place, UK. Listed as U. glabra 'Atropurpurea'. Acc. no. 1896–1411. Australasia • Avenue of Honour, Wallan, Victoria, Australia. • Avenue of Honour, Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. North America • Dominion Arboretum, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Acc. no. 2596. ==Nurseries==

Europe • Centrum voor Botanische Verrijking vzw, Kampenhout, Belgium (as Ulmus glabra 'Purpurea'). • Loenbaek Planteskole , Holstebro, Denmark. • Propagation Nurseries Vermeerderingstuin [http://www.vermeerderingstuinen.nl/index2.php?pid=22&taalkeuze=2 Horst and Zeewolde, Netherlands ==References==