Garden & avenue classics
Elm
Ulmus procera & cultivars
Melbourne holds something most of the world lost: mature elms. Dutch elm disease killed tens of millions of them across Europe and North America last century, but it never reached Australia, which makes the elms of Royal Parade, Fitzroy Gardens and the inner east's private gardens globally significant survivors.
How to spot an elm
Leaves
Small, oval and saw-edged, with a distinctly lopsided base where one side of the leaf starts lower than the other. Rough like fine sandpaper on top.
Bark
Dark grey-brown and deeply furrowed into a rough network of ridges, even on relatively young trees.
Form
A tall, broad, arching crown, often wider than the tree is high in open gardens. Avenue elms form dense green cathedrals overhead.
Golden elm
The weeping, dome-shaped cultivar with lime-gold foliage you can spot from a block away. A Canterbury and Kew signature tree.
Suckers
Elms send up shoots from their roots, so a line of small elms along a fence often traces the roots of one big parent tree.
Where you'll see it around the south east
The famous avenues are Royal Parade and the Fitzroy Gardens, but the inner east has its own collection: golden elms glowing on Canterbury and Kew corners, English elms over Toorak and Malvern gardens, and remnant street plantings across Boroondara and Stonnington. Many are listed on significant tree registers.
Worth knowing
Because the disease that destroyed elms overseas has never established here, Melbourne's population is studied and visited by researchers worldwide. Owning a mature elm in Melbourne means holding a piece of world horticultural heritage in your backyard.
Easily confused with
The lopsided leaf base separates elms from almost everything else. Hackberries and hornbeams have more symmetrical leaves; planes and oaks are easy to rule out by leaf shape alone. Among elms themselves, the golden cultivar is unmistakable for its colour.
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