Thought to have been brought over by the Romans thousands of years ago, the English elm used to be the most commonly found tree in southern England. But it’s unlikely you’ve seen one in its full majestic glory in the last 50 years. The trees were basically wiped out in the 1970s when they caught Dutch elm disease – 25 million of them had to be chopped down.
Ever since then, experts have been on the hunt for varieties of English elm tree resistant to the disease, which is caused by fungus spread by elm bark beetles. And now, finally, they might have hit the jackpot.
Two friends, Dr David Herling and Fergus Poncia, have created a new variety that seems to have a lot of the same characteristics as English elms.
It’s been a long labour of love. The friends had been given some saplings from a disease-resistant elm by Italian academics back in 2014 and worked together to created a hybrid.
Poncia told the Guardian: ‘When [the sapling] flowers, you only have a window of a few hours, so you have to sit up overnight, watching, and hope the others will flower at the same time. Then you take the pollen off with a paintbrush from one and paste it on to the other.’
The duo planted 130 of the baby trees at a sewage treatment works in Kent to avoid deer from getting at them. In 2018, Poncia and Herling (who passed way in 2020) tested them with the latest variety of Dutch elm disease and four survived, which were then multiplied by horticulture experts across the country.
Richard Buggs, senior research leader at Kew, has said that the results are ‘promising’. Now the goal is for seedlings and saplings to be given out and planted by members of the public in an effort to restore English elms back to their former glory.
The UK’s green and pleasant land
When was the last time you really appreciated everything that Britain’s countryside has to offer? If you’re in need of a reminder, we at Time Out have lists of the very best places to spot rare and wonderful wildlife in the UK, the most beautiful national parks and our favourite fairytale forests. One of our most treasured natural heritage sites was even recently named among the best in the world.
Did you see that VisitScotland is closing all of its tourist information centres?
Plus: Wales is scrapping its controversial 20mph speed limit.
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