Over the last few weeks, I noticed some trees that might have been doing poorly. The bark was mottled and irregular, and there were fallen leaves around them. Last year was hard on some local trees, for the year began with a stretch of very wet months, followed by a dry late summer. I wondered whether these trees might still be suffering, but apparently they are fine. The Audubon book says that they are Chinese elms, called lacebark elms for the patchy bark, and they do drop their leaves as new growth comes in.
I can't say the bark much reminds me of lace:
They must have looked like this most years since the city planted them. That I now have noticed them owes to my restricted travel this spring: I pass the stretches where they are a couple of times most days, when other years I might have passed them once or twice a month.
My least favourite tree. Seduced with talk of lacy bark, we planted one many years ago. We had a to pay a lot to have it removed in the end, after it had grown rapidly, spread massively and ended up casting the entire back garden into gloom and swallowing every living thing in its vicinity. It was very nearly supernatural.
ReplyDeleteElms can be pretty aggressive. There is one we aren't fond of in the yard just west of ours.
Delete