In the forest, it has a straight bole with the trunk dividing into widespreading limbs high up the tree. The crown is broad and rather flat topped. The perfect flowers form dense packed clusters. Seeds of slippery elm are larger than those of many of the native elms. Seedlings become established under a wide variety of conditions.
Slippery elm sprouts readily from the stump or root crown.
Seedlings produces sprouts from rhizomes. Slippery elm also reproduces by layering. Slippery elm grows best on moist, rich soils of lower slopes, streambanks, river terraces, and bottomlands but is also found on much drier sites, particularly those of limestone origin. Reproduction is erratic under fully stocked stands. In a river terrace forest in east-central Illinois, slippery elm was present in most size classes, but no seedlings were present.