Ulmus minor Mill.
U. campestris auct., U. campestris subsp. prostrata (Salisb.) Maire, U. procera Salisb.
Eng.: Small-leaved elm, smooth leaved elm. Spa.: Olmo, negrillo. Fre.: Orme champêtre, ormeau. Ara.: Nechem, nachem. Tam.: Ulmu.
Tree, deciduous, with hermaphrodite and unisexual flowers, up to 30 m in height and even taller, sparse foliage and ovate-oblong in shape. Trunk can exceed 1 m in diameter. Bark brown or blackish-brown, thick, deeply fissured. Young branchlets greenish, pubescent. Buds ovoid, usually slightly pubescent. Leaves (3-10 × 1.5-6 cm) alternate, ovate or ovate-lanceolate, sometimes obovate, briefly acuminate, asymmetrical at the base, with one side longer than the other, twice dentate; dark green and glabrous on the upper side, light green and slightly pubescent on the underside; petiolate, with linear-lanceolate stipules, caducous. Inflorescences in dense cymes, axillary, appearing before the leaves. Flowers very small, cupuliform calyx, subsessile, with 1 single greenish whorl of 5-7 ovate or oblong lobes, very short, obtuse, reddish. Stamens 3-5, longly protruding. Fruit a suborbicular samara, 7-20 mm, greenish-yellowish, which is fully developed before the appearance of the leaves.
Flowering:
February to March.
Fruiting:
March to April.
Habitat:
Deep and moist soils, usually near rivers and streams of permanent waters, in temperate regions.
Distribution:
Europe (from Spain to Siberia), western Asia (up to Turkestan) and North Africa. In North Africa it is a common tree along the rivers of N Algeria and Tunisia. In some rivers it is the dominant species, forming extensive riparian forests. In Morocco, it can only be found in the NW, where it is very rare in the wild, although as a cultivated species it can be found all over the country. It seems to be native in nature, as proven by anthracological studies conducted on 2,600 year old samples in Lixus (NW Atlantic coast of Morocco). In NE Libya it is rare and its spontaneity dubious.
Conservation status:
Common and widespread species. Currently, it has not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. In Tunisia it is included, as U. campestris, in its List of native species that are rare and threatened with extinction (Order of the Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources, 19-July-2006).