Also called ◼︎ white elm and ♒︎ water elm.

Part of elm  genus Ulmus in elm  family Ulmaceae in 🍎︎ apple / 🍇︎ berry / buckthorn / elm / hemp / 🌹︎ rose  order Rosales.

Native to 🇨🇦 🇺🇸 Canada and USA, east of the 🗻︎ Rocky Mountains.   🗺 Map by county (🇺🇸 USA-48), 🗺 map (North America, Central America),  Adobe Acrobat Reader file 🗺 today + with climate change (eastern 🇺🇸 USA).

🏛🌳︎ State tree of North Dakota and Massachusetts.

Formerly abundant, in most of its former range, only very-young, short or treated trees can be found, due to infestation by Dutch elm disease (DED)  Ophiostoma ulmi and related (prevention and treatment [archived]).

This author has seen two beautiful majestic mature elms, apparently spared from DED by geographic isolation.  And some adolescent trees, too young to be attacked by the disease.  And read about treatments and blight-resistant hybrid cultivars.   But these actions seem pretty pathetic, compared to the scale of destruction.

Uses by native peoples
(Ethnobotany database)

Ulmus hosts caterpillars of 213 species
of butterflies and moths, in some areas.

Planting info (SW Michigan).  Adobe Acrobat Reader file

Learn more about American elm Ulmus americana

🔍︎ 🔍︎ images Discover Life Encyclopedia of Life Michigan Flora (Michigan) MSU Ext (Minnesota) Wildflower Garden Minnesota Wildflowers Missouri Botanical Garden Flora of North America USDA PLANTS db USFS USFS Silvics Wikipedia