Thirty five metres tall on a trunk 4.5 metres round, which makes this the tallest street tree in Irvington and one of the tallest elms anywhere on this site. That it is standing at all is the point. Dutch elm disease reached North America in 1930 and took an estimated hundred million trees, and it rewrote what American streets look like: the elm arch that shaded half the country's residential blocks is largely a photograph now. Portland was luckier than most, partly through geography and partly through an aggressive city programme of inspection and removal, and elms like this one are what luck plus effort left behind. Field elm is the European native, no more resistant than any other, so this tree has simply not been found by the beetle that carries the fungus. Every year it goes unfound is another year. The city registered it in 2003. Two blocks south stand the pair of heritage planes; the wingnut line is four blocks west.
The line is our estimate of how much there is to see, not a measurement. Typical for this species where this tree stands; exact weeks shift with the year.
2546 NE 18th Avenue, IrvingtonA notably tall elm with a high, vase-shaped crown and small, asymmetric-based leaves rough to the touch.
Free. Street tree on the public right of way.
NE 18th Avenue at Stanton, Irvington. Bus 8, then a short walk east.
Sources
Where the facts on this page come from.
- In the official register: City of Portland Heritage Trees (Portland Parks & Recreation), no. 258
- portland.gov
- City of Portland, Oregon: Heritage Trees (Bureau of Parks and Recreation, Heritage Tree ordinance), no. 258