Almost every elm this size that once grew in Munich is gone, and that absence is the entire reason this one is protected.
Photo: Peterf (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Wych Elm
Ulmus glabra
On the night of 12 May 1971 a crowd of Stockholmers climbed into the elms of Kungstradgarden and refused to come down, and the city workers went home. We map 12 of them, in 11 cities.
Those trees are still standing, between 160 and 205 years old. Any wych elm of size is worth a detour now, because a fungus carried tree to tree by bark beetles cleared out most of the big ones within two generations. One of the oldest in the Netherlands, put at roughly 275 years, stands on a lawn behind an office building in The Hague that was a manor house first. Brighton's, in a dog exercise area above a playground, is the widest recorded in Sussex. Munich protects the elm on Maximiliansplatz precisely because almost every elm that size in the city has gone. Trento's stands in the garden facing the station, under two minutes from the platform.
Munich
Dublin
Trinity College once had around sixty elms scattered across its grounds, and Dutch elm disease is the obvious explanation for why almost none of them are left.
Leipzig
Dutch elm disease has been killing Europe's elms since the last century, wych elms among them, which is why a living, protected one in a Lindenau street is worth the detour.
Photo: Pixelkaktus (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The Hague
One of the oldest wych elms in the Netherlands stands on a lawn behind an office building.
Quebec City
Dutch elm disease took out most of the mature elms of North America.
The second European elm on this page stands at the western end of Grande Allee, close to where the avenue runs out into the Plains of Abraham, which makes it the link between the street trees and t...
Warsaw
Most of Europe's big elms are gone.
Stockholm
On the night of 12 May 1971, a small crowd of Stockholmers climbed into these elms and refused to come down, stopping city workers who had arrived with chainsaws to fell them for a new metro statio...
Brighton
The widest wych elm recorded in Sussex stands in a dog exercise area above a children's playground.
Salt Lake City
Utah's biggest wych elm is a European tree growing at the corner of one of the most recognisable buildings in the American West.
Toulouse
A big elm in western Europe is unusual enough to be the story.
Trento
Step off a train at Trento and the walk to a centuries-old elm takes under two minutes.
Explore by city: Munich · Dublin · Leipzig · The Hague · Quebec City · Warsaw · Stockholm · Brighton · Toulouse · Trento · every city · or browse all species.