Because of its durability, it was once used for the hubs of wagon wheels and the Iroquois used the bark for canoes and for making rope. Its native habitat ranges from central Canada to central Texas and east to the Atlantic. It will grow successfully in the West with sufficient water. It is valued for timber, wildlife habitat, and as a shelterbelt. The American Elm was once an abundant tree but has been decimated by the Dutch Elm disease caused by a fungus accidentally introduced about 1930.
Trees are immune from the disease until they are about ten years old.
The seeds in this kit are from a resistant strain of American Elm.