Tree ID wanted(Pic Heavy)
- Thread starter Matthew.Passmore
- Start date
robin wood
Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
neither extinct nor rare, most of the big ones died but the roots generally survived and it sends up suckers. when the suckers reach about 20-25 feet high and 4-5" diameter they often get reinfected and die back again.
Yeah, we have loads comming back down here Robin.... Is it any good for carving..?
Also, some of the locals call it cornish elm.. Would that be the same tree, or a sub species..?
robin wood
Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
The disease has been about for several millennia at least. There was a major outbreak in the early 1900's that killed a lot of trees, and other recorded outbreaks in the 17th and 18th centuries. The disease is a fungi spread by a beetle, normally the tree lives happily with it but every so often it mutates to a more virulent for which can damage or even kill a tree. Sometimes you hear folk talk about trees becoming resistant which is a bit sill when you compare the times it takes fungi and trees to get through a life cycle. After a while the fungi mutates back to a less virulent form which knocks the tree back a bit but doesn't kill it. When you fell an elm sometimes you can see a place in the growth rings where they suddenly go very close together for a few years as a result of a disease attack. I often see elms now where the disease is not killing them. There is a bit of die back at the tips but next year they are OK. Funny thing is people only notice the dead trees, many places still have big elms, the corridor along the south coast from Brighton to Portsmouth has many, we have a lot in Buxton..in fact anywhere surrounded by large areas or open high ground which the beetles don't fly over.
There are probably more subspecies of Elm than any other British tree. In fact because it reproduces by suckering better than seed often large areas of woodland (many square miles) have elms of identical genetic stock. I have heard it suggested that if you consider these elm clone groups as single individuals they are the largest living things on Earth. Elm wood is variable, some is clean straight grained and splits easily...very good bow wood. Some is very twisted and when large made the best wheel hubs and Windsor chair seats. It is quite fibrous like ash or oak so it would not be my first choice for carving though I have turned bowls from it. It has a superb bast (inner bark) which peals easily at this time of year in long strips and can be used like rawhide. If retted it makes excellent fibre for string.
yer thanks for the info, the place where it took those photos there are probably 3 really big elms.
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