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The Huntingdon Elm U. x hollandica 'Vegeta' is an old English cultivar raised at Brampton, near Huntingdon by nurserymen Wood & Ingram in 1746, allegedly from seed collected from an Ulmus x hollandica hybrid at nearby Hinchingbrooke Park. The tree was often confused by nineteenth century writers with the Chichester Elm, a similar hybrid raised earlier in the 18th century. Before the advent of Dutch elm disease the Huntingdon Elm commonly grew to over 35 m in height, with long, straight, ascending branches. *. The glossy, oval leaves are < 12 cm long by < 7.5 cm broad contracting at the apex to a sharp point, on smooth branchlets that never feature corky wings. The tightly-clustered flowers are bright red, and appear in early spring. The samarae are obovate, < 25 mm long. The tree suckers freely, and a comparatively high percentage of the seed is usually viable. The tree was widely cultivated in England owing to its very rapid growth (< 3 m per annum) and attractive wide-spreading form, but its habit of forking sometimes led to splitting of the trunk and premature death. A reputed Huntingdon Elm at Magdalen College, Oxford, was for a time the largest elm known in Britain before it was blown down in 1911. It measured 44 m tall, its trunk at breast height 2.6 m in diameter. However, its calculated age would place its planting before the introduction of the Huntingdon Elm, and the tree in question may well have been a Chichester Elm. The Huntingdon Elm is notable today for its moderate tolerance of Dutch elm disease, a moribund clump on a farm near Portsmouth coppiced in 1932 still survives (2006) despite first exhibiting signs of the disease in 2001.
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