The Elm of Ruzova Street

Most of Europe's big elms are dead, and this one is standing on a side street between Wenceslas Square and the main station. Dutch elm disease, a fungus carried between trees by bark beetles, went through the continent in two waves last century and removed elms so thoroughly that a mature one is now a curiosity rather than an ordinary sight. The elm at Ruzova 941/2 has lived through both waves and shows no sign of either. It is a European white elm, the species with lopsided leaves and papery seed discs that ripen in May, 23 metres tall with a trunk 335 centimetres around, growing on a scrap of ground that was a front garden before the block turned into offices and hotels. The crown fills the courtyard behind the railings and leans out over the pavement, which is where you stand to look at it. Prague gave it legal protection only on 15 April 2022, roughly 190 years into its life, having put a fence around its base the year before. Elms that shrug off the fungus are studied as possible parents for resistant stock, so this one may yet turn out to be useful as well as old.