Plant · P-160

Siberian Elm

Ulmus pumila

Siberian Elm grows fast into a tough, wind-pollinated tree that shrugs off heat, alkaline soil and drought once established, though its wood is weak and individual stems are short-lived. Left to grow and flower, one tree scatters wind-borne seed with high germination onto any open ground nearby each spring; cut back to the stump on an annual or biennial cycle instead, it never flowers or seeds at all, and produces goat and cattle browse, tough coppice wood, edible young leaves and inner bark, and medicinal bark poultices. It fixes no nitrogen and offers nothing to pollinators, since a coppiced tree never flowers in the first place.