The FLOWERS are small, perfect, greenish, on slender [pedicels], soon pendulous, and appear before the leaves. The [FRUIT] ripens in the spring and is a light green, oval-shaped [samara] (winged fruit) with the seed portion in the center and surrounded entirely by a wing. A deep notch in the end of the wing is distinctive of the species.
The WOOD is heavy, hard, strong, tough, and difficult to split. It is used for hubs of wheels, saddle trees, veneer for baskets and crates, and slack cooperage.
American elm is rapidly being destroyed in the East and Midwest by the Dutch elm disease and by phloem necrosis.
WINGED ELM
Ulmus alata Michx.
Winged elm gets its common name from the thin corky growth or “wings”, usually found on smaller branches. These “wings” generally end abruptly at the leaf [nodes] as contrasted by the cedar elm ([p. 63]) whose “wings” are generally continuous. On large rapidly growing trees the wings are often absent. It occurs in eastern Texas south to the valley of the Guadalupe River, on dry uplands, and in moist soils along streams and swamps. It grows rapidly in moist situations, and may also be planted along roadsides in relatively dry, poor locations. It is comparatively free from disease, though not long-lived. Winged elm is a medium-sized tree 40 to 50 feet in height and rarely as large as 2 feet in diameter. It forms a rather open, round-topped head.
WINGED ELM (Leaf and [fruit], one-third natural size; twig, one-half natural size)
The [BARK] is light brown tinged with red, and divided by irregular shallow [fissures] into flat ridges.
The LEAVES are [simple] [alternate], 2 to 4 inches long and 1 to 2 inches broad, coarsely double-toothed, thick, dark green and smooth above, and pale and pale-pubescent or [glabrous] below with auxiliary hairs and prominent [veins]. The leaves are small and pointed at the tip, which distinguishes them from the small blunt leaves of the cedar elm.
The FLOWERS appear in early spring, long before the leaves unfold. The [FRUIT] ripens in the spring about the time the leaves appear; it is winged, tipped with two, small, incurved arms or beaks; [oblong], reddish-brown; about ⅓ inch long, with a long, slender [pedicel] at the base, and covered with white hairs.