Scientific: Ulmus parvifolia
Common: Chinese elm (lacebark elm)
Family: Ulmaceae
Origin: China

Hardiness zones
Sunset 8,9, 12-24
USDA 6 - 11

Landscape Use: Residential shade tree, street tree, accent. Also, makes an excellent bonsai.

Form & Character: Deciduous to semi-evergreen tree in mild winter climates, open canopied with umbrella topped, small branches are weeping especially if propagated from stem cutting. With training, Chinese elm can have the quintessential inverted vase form that's ideal for trees in urban settings.

Growth Habit: Moderate to fast to 40 to 60' with equal spread

Foliage/texture: Small 1 to 3" long, elliptic to ovate leaves with serrate margins and an inequilaterally or cuneate base, alternate arrangement, bark is shed in a 'puzzle-piece' fashion, medium fine texture

Flowers & fruits: Flowers greenish yellow in late summer of year followed by single-winged samara that are greenish pink in late fall to winter.

Seasonal color: Brilliant, light green foliage in spring, sometimes yellowish-red fall to winter color from foliage during cooler falls and early cold winters. Stays evergreen though in coastal southern California.

Temperature: Hardy, but :Phoenix foliage will become marginally necrotic in late summer and early fall due to summer heat stress.

Light: Full sun

Soil: Tolerant

Watering: To maintain vigor, irrigate regularly during spring, summer and early fall. Supplemental water also improves appearance.

Pruning: Needs to be vigorously trained and staked when young, especially if asexually propagated from cutting.

Propagation: Cutting or seed. Most locally available trees are cutting grown.

Disease and pests: Sometimes susceptible to Texas root rot, but resistance to Dutch elm disease. In addition, cultivars 'Drake', 'Truegreen' and 'Evergreen' are susceptible to canker disease (Fusarium lateritium and Diplodia sp).

Additional comments: One of the best mesic shade trees for the lower Arizona desert landscapes. There are numerous cultivars such as:

'Allee'^TM - also known as 'Emer II' or 'Emerald Vase', is a common cultivar with unusual bark fluting and high stress resistance to urban conditions.
'Brea' - has relatively large dark green leaves that gives the tree a lustrous, coarser texture.
'Cork Bark' - also know as 'Corticosa'; trunk has a corky bark.
'Drake' - has relatively smaller leaves yielding a finer overaell texture; not as cold hardy thus is best in southern climates.
'Dynasty' - is a National Arboretum selection with great orange-yellow fall color.
'Emerald I' - has a broadly rounded shape with orange, gray and brown bark.
'Emerald II' - is a stress tolerant cultivar tree with attractive mottled bark.
'Sempervirens' - is best for warm coastal climates of southern California and Florida; has a mostly evergreen habit.
'True Green' - has a evergreen, pendulous habit.
'Yatsubusa' - is a dwarf cultivar growing only 6 feet tall.

In the nursery and landscape trades Chinese elm is sometimes confused with with U. pumila (Siberian elm). Siberian elm flowers in spring, has a relatively stiff and rigid growth habit, weaker and more brittle wood, produces more litter, and has less glossy leaves than Chinese elm. Most experts outside of the upper Midwest and Plains states (where Chinese elm does not grow) consider Siberian elm to be a trash tree when compared to Chinese elm.