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Ulmus minor Mill.

This specimen has an height of about 30 m and a circumference of about 4.80 m.

Bush or small tree from Caucasus, the rural elm belongs to the Ulmaceae family. It is a plant used for reproduction and which tolerates well pruning and resprout abundantly when it is pollarded. The elm resist aridity, cold and pollution and it tolerates also clayish and calcareous soils. The root system is a taproot one in the first ten years, then it tends to develop  supporting roots with an horizontal development which unify with root systems of the nearest elms. This is the principal cause of the spreading of the so called Dutch elm disease, a pathology which has endangered for decades the life of this species.
In Italy, it is possible to find it in all the regions till 1000 mt.
In ancient times, in the Po valley, it was married to vines and it was part of the “Piantata”. Its fresh fronds were used as forage for kettle. In herbal medicine it is considered a good healing mean.
The seeds were called once “pane del maggiolino” because they ripened in the same period in which the insect made its appearance.

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