Two elm trees which have stood in Patcham Village for up to 300 years are to be felled after falling victim to Dutch elm disease.
The Brighton Bits blog reports that an infection was spotted last year by Brighton and Hove City Council’s tree officers and quickly removed.
But unfortunately, the disease spread through the roots to the other tree, and now both will have to be cut down.
She adds: “The only consolation is that they were very old trees and, even if they had not succumbed to elm disease, they would no doubt have become increasingly in need of surgery which would have diminished their splendour.”
A picture of the trees showing the infection can be seen on the blog.
I was horrified to hear the loss of these fine elms. I recrded them on many occassions for the Tree Register. I have approached the local community assocaition about getting the trees replaced with other more resistant elms, so that generations to come can appreciate the elm in the future and reflect on the old gentries that once stood there.
I was devastated to hear that these two wonderful trees have succumbed to Dutch Elm Disease. Last year I recorded White-letter Hairstreak butterflies on these trees (whose caterpillars feed off elm trees without causing lasting damage)for Butterfly Conservation, Sussex Branch. Not only will we be losing the trees but also all the wildlife that depend on them. As Peter Bourne says, disease resistant English elm saplings are now available so maybe there is hope for replacements when the site is declared free of disease.
It was a sad day yesterday, seeing these wonderful trees being removed. I wonder who could be contacted to establish to true age of the tree, before the roots and stump are removed?
Hello Caroliine,
that’s a crying shame about those Patcham elm trees. Are you absolutely suret these saplings tha you mention are English elm – for that is a stately tree ((I am 52 and I well remember them, or even an American elm – also a stately tree, or are they some kind of oriental elm – not particularly stately? It will be GREAT if they are English elm – by whatever means they are produced (genetically engineered maybe).
Hi John, I don’t know whether Brighton council will re-plant English elm saplings – they seem to be more in favour of hybrids and I’m not qualified to assess which would be the better course of action with regard to minimising disease in the long run. However, ‘King & Co, The Tree Nursery’, growers from Essex have disease-resistant Enlgish elm saplings for sale which have been grown from cuttings taken from 2 mature elm trees that appear to be resistant to DED. More info on their website. I expect time will tell just how resisant these saplings will be.
That’s really neat about those Resistant English Elm saplings from cuttings from two very unusual DED epidemic survivor trees (and mature ones at that.)
Thanks Caroline, and let’s hope they are as good as they’re cracked up to be. I really hope those little trees make it. It’ll be so nice for future generations.