American Elm

• Classic vase shape: trunks split into arching limbs
• Doubly-toothed, lopsided leaves rough on top
• Gray-brown bark in flattened, crisscrossing ridges
• Papery, round seeds in spring

Native range

Native across eastern North America including all of Kansas. Before Dutch elm disease it was the dominant street tree of nearly every Kansas town, arching over main streets in a way nothing has replaced.

Soil

Extremely adaptable — wet or dry, acidic or alkaline, clay or loam. Soil is rarely what limits this tree.

Sunlight

Full sun

Drought & heat

High drought tolerance, high heat tolerance.

Plant only named DED-resistant cultivars. Old survivors in your yard are worth protecting — call a pro at the first flagging, wilting branch in early summer.

Shallow and wide on moist ground, and capable of lifting walks. More importantly, elms growing near each other graft roots underground, and those grafts are the main route Dutch elm disease travels down a street.

The classic vase form spreads long, arching limbs over a wide area, so ice loading is the main hazard. Wood strength is fair; the risk comes from limb length and the size of the area beneath.

Overall storm resistance: Fair. Assessing damage after a storm

• Dutch elm disease

  Serious

  A fungus carried by bark beetles and through root grafts. The first sign is one branch of yellow, wilting, flagging leaves in early summer. Caught in a single limb it is occasionally treatable; established in the trunk it is not.

• Elm leaf beetle

  Manageable

  Larvae skeletonize leaves from underneath, leaving a lacy brown crown by midsummer. Rarely fatal on its own, but repeated defoliation weakens a tree already facing disease pressure.

• Elm yellows

  Serious

  A phytoplasma disease causing sudden yellowing, leaf drop, and death, often with a wintergreen smell in freshly cut inner bark. There is no treatment.

Seeing something not listed here? Work from the symptom instead

Best windowDormant season — November through February. Avoid all growing-season cuts.

Prune in winter only. Fresh growing-season wounds release volatiles that attract the bark beetles carrying Dutch elm disease. Remove and destroy dead elm wood promptly rather than stacking it — beetle broods develop in it.

Use caution: give it room for a wide crown and expect surface roots on moist sites. A healthy mature elm near a home is worth protecting rather than pre-emptively removing.

• Dutch elm disease confirmed and progressing through the crown — remove and destroy the wood, and sever root grafts to protect neighbors
• Extensive trunk decay under a long limb that overhangs a target
• Major limb failure has torn open the trunk

Removal is a judgment call about risk, not a formula. A tree with one of these conditions over open lawn is a very different situation from the same tree over a driveway — and that judgment needs someone on site.