page_title: Ulmus minor 'Atinia'
section_title: Uses
hierarchical_section_title: Ulmus minor 'Atinia' / Uses
caption_attribution_description: English: English elm in hedgerow, near Alfriston, East Sussex, UK. Photo 1996
context_page_description: The field elm cultivar 'Atinia', commonly known as the English elm, formerly common elm and horse may, and more lately the Atinian elm was, before the spread of Dutch elm disease, the most common field elm in central southern England, though not native there, and one of the largest and fastest-growing deciduous trees in Europe. R. H. Richens noted that elm populations exist in north-west Spain and northern Portugal, and on the Mediterranean coast of France that "closely resemble the English elm" and appear to be "trees of long standing" in those regions rather than recent introductions. Augustine Henry had earlier noted that the supposed English elms planted extensively in the Royal Park at Aranjuez from the late 16th century onwards, specimens said to have been introduced from England by Philip II and "differing in no respects from the English elm in England", behaved as native trees in Spain. He suggested that the tree "may be a true native of Spain, indigenous in the alluvial plains of the great rivers, now almost completely deforested".
  Richens believed that English elm was a particular clone of the variable species Ulmus minor, referring to it as Ulmus minor var. vulgaris.
context_section_description: The English elm was once valued for many purposes, notably as water pipes from hollowed trunks, owing to its resistance to rot in saturated conditions. It is also very resilient to crushing damage, and these two properties led to its widespread use in the construction of jetties, timber piers, lock gates, etc. It was used to a degree in furniture manufacture, but not to the same extent as oak, because of its greater tendency to shrink, swell, and split, which also rendered it unsuitable as the major timber component in shipbuilding and building construction. The wood has a density around 560 kg/m³.
  However, English elm is chiefly remembered today for its aesthetic contribution to the English countryside. In 1913, Henry Elwes wrote, "Its true value as a landscape tree may be best estimated by looking down from an eminence in almost any part of the valley of the Thames, or of the Severn below Worcester, during the latter half of November, when the bright golden colour of the lines of elms in the hedgerows is one of the most striking scenes that England can produce".
caption: English elms in hedgerow, Alfriston, East Sussex (1996)
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