Most of New York's elms are gone.
American Elm
Ulmus americana
American elm once shaded street after street in the cities of North America, until Dutch elm disease arrived and killed the great majority of them. We map 11 of them, in 6 cities.
That is why every old survivor now reads as an event. Montreal once had about 22,000, and the Last Elm of Mont-Royal is one of the few still standing. Central Park's western edge carried about 500; a 1985 survey counted 23, and the Great Elm of Central Park West is on that shortlist. In Washington the Smithsonian lists its Witness Elm as accession number 1 of its living collection, five and a half metres round and somewhere between 175 and 210 years old, depending on whose account you take. In Oklahoma City the Survivor Tree lost most of its branches to the 1995 bombing, came into bloom again about a year later, and was kept at the centre of the memorial.
New York
Central Park once had roughly 500 American elms along its western edge.
Two American elms grow straight out of exposed bedrock east of Central Park's Mall, their roots spread flat across the rock like something poured rather than planted.
Central Park's most photographed avenue of trees is not the original one.
On 9 October 1966 a monk from India sat down beneath this American elm and began to chant.
Montreal
Montreal once had roughly 22,000 American elms.
Quebec City
The City of Quebec's own heritage record is precise about how Grande Allee got its trees: the municipal authorities widened the avenue at the end of the 1880s and lined it with ormes d'Amerique, Am...
Washington DC
The Smithsonian catalogues this tree the way it catalogues everything else.
Every 'Jefferson' elm planted in the United States is a cutting taken from this tree.
Photo: Katy Swiere (CC BY 4.0)
Oklahoma City
After the bombing, officials nearly took the tree down.
Photo: John Burnett (CC BY-SA)
Ottawa
Most of the American elms that once lined Ottawa's streets and parkways are gone, killed by Dutch elm disease starting in the 1960s.
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