Ulmus glabra

Ulmus glabra Hudson, the wych elm or Scots elm, has the widest range of the European elm species, from Ireland eastwards to the Ural Mountains, and from the Arctic Circle south to the mountains of the Peloponnese and Sicily, where the species reaches its southern limit in Europe; it is also found in Iran. A large deciduous tree, it is essentially a montane species, growing at elevations up to , preferring sites with moist soils and high humidity. The tree can form pure forests in Scandinavia and occurs as far north as latitude 67°N at Beiarn in Norway. It has been successfully introduced as far north as Tromsø and Alta in northern Norway (70°N). It has also been successfully introduced to Narsarsuaq, near the southern tip of Greenland (61°N). The tree was by far the most common elm in the north and west of the British Isles and is now acknowledged as the only indisputably British native elm species. Owing to its former abundance in Scotland, the tree is occasionally known as the Scotch or Scots elm; Loch Lomond is said to be a corruption of the Gaelic Lac Leaman interpreted by some as 'Lake of the Elms', 'leaman' being the plural form of leam or lem, 'elm'. Closely related species, such as Bergmann's elm U. bergmanniana and Manchurian elm U. laciniata, native to northeast Asia, were once sometimes included in U. glabra; another close relative is the Himalayan or Kashmir elm U. wallichiana. Conversely, Ulmus elliptica from the Caucasus, considered a species by some authorities, is often listed as a regional form of Ulmus glabra. The word "wych" (also spelled "witch") comes from the Old English wice, meaning pliant or supple, which also gives definition to wicker and weak. Jacob George Strutt's 1822 book, Sylva Britannica attests that the Wych Elm was sometimes referred to as the "Wych Hazel". (not to be confused with Hamamelis wych hazels). Some botanists, notably Lindquist (1931), have proposed two subspecies: U. glabra subsp. glabra in the south of the species' range: broad leaves with short tapering base and acute lobes; trees often with a short, forked trunk and a low, broad crown; U.