 |
| Home Painting Skills and Basics Paperhanging Home Decorating Interior Decorating Wood Identification |
Elm wood and treesWych Elm leaves and seeds Elm wood was valued for its interlocking grain, and consequent  resistance to splitting, with significant uses in wheels, chair seats and coffins. The wood is also resistant to decay when permanently wet, and hollowed trunks were widely used as water pipes during the medieval period in Europe.Elms also have a long history of cultivation for fodder, with the leafy branches cut for livestock. The bark, cut into strips and boiled, sustained much of the rural population of Norway during the great famine of 1812. From the 18th century to the early 20th century, elms were among the most widely planted ornamental tree in both Europe and North America. They were particularly popular as a street tree in avenue plantings in towns and cities, creating high-tunnelled effects, and to this day, 'Elm Street' remains the most common road name in the USA. In North America the species most commonly planted was the American Elm, which had unique properties that made it ideal for such use: rapid growth, adaptation to a broad range of climates and soils, strong wood, resistance to wind damage, and vase-like growth habit requiring minimal pruning. In Europe, the Wych Elm and the Smooth-leaved Elm minor were the most widely planted in the countryside, with the former in northern areas (Scandinavia, northern Britain), and the latter further south. The hybrid between these two, Dutch Elm, occurs naturally and was also commonly planted. In England, it was the English Elm that came to dominate the landscape; planted in hedgerows, it often occurred in densities of over 1000 per square kilometre. Such was its ubiquity, it almost always featured in the landscape paintings of John Constable. In the later 20th century English Elms were decimated by Dutch Elm disease. In Australia, large numbers of English Elms, as well as other species and cultivars, were planted as ornamentals following their introduction in the 19th century. In parks and gardens, from about 1850 to 1920 the most prized small specimen elm was the Camperdown Elm, a contorted weeping cultivar of the Wych Elm grafted on a standard elm trunk to give a wide, spreading and weeping fountain shape in large garden spaces. Extract from 'The International book of WOOD' curtesy Michael Beazley Publishers Limited 1979. |
 |