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I planted a series of saplings when I moved into this garden and they have been slowly overgrown by Eucalyptus. A gale a few years ago made their situation easier
and now I have a largish tree and this stump, slowly recovering from gale damage. Cambridge University Botanic Garden say: "The Japanese Zelkova, Zelkova serrata is an elegant tree in the Elm family, located on the southern side of the Fairway in the eastern part of the Garden. The short trunk branches into a goblet shape, and the ovate leaves, as the botanical name suggests, are elegantly and regularly toothed. In autumn, the foliage turns a rich copper colour." Trees and Shrubs online says: "Zelkova serrata enjoys the broadest natural range of its genus, although like its relatives it seldom seeds abundantly and its distribution has become increasingly scattered, resulting in its recent reassessment by the IUCN as a Near Threatened species (Kozlowski et al. 2018). It is the only zelkova native to Japan, where it provides the most valuable and durable of timbers, which was used for battleships; traditional taiko drums were hollowed from sections of a single trunk (Kozlowski et al. 2018). More recently, the species has found favour as a forestry tree, with large plantations being made across east Asia, but since these plants have been selected for their health and vigour they seldom contain much genetic diversity (Kozlowski & Gratzfeld 2013). Zelkova serrata is the kind of plant whose year-round elegance can catch the eye of people who tend not to notice trees – although only a much more select group will be able to name it with confidence. The finely flaking but otherwise smooth, multi-coloured bark has a stone-like quality; the crown typically branches widely but daintily, and in winter the twigs are almost ethereally fine. The fish-shaped leaves – much longer-pointed than those of Z. carpinifolia – are held gracefully at a declining angle, and can turn gold, bronze or even crimson in autumn. Zelkova serrata was smuggled from Japan to Holland by Philipp von Siebold as early as 1830 (Jacobson 1996); two original trees still grow in the Hortus Botanicus Leiden where the largest had a dbh of 95 cm in 2021 (Hortus Botanicus Leiden 2023; monumentaltrees.com 2023). |
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| 18th July 2015 | ||
