Winged Elm tree at LCNP.
The Winged Elm, also called Cork Elm, Wahoo Elm, or Witch Elm, is one of our native trees, growing 30-40 ft. high with spreading branches that form a round-topped, oblong head. Opposite corky ridges occur on the branches in one plane. It is a deciduous tree with dark green leaves which may turn yellow in fall. The leaves alternate down the branch, and are ovate, oblique, doubly serrated and small. It blooms in February, March, and April. It makes a brown fruit called a samara.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, the fibrous inner bark was made into rope for fastening the covers of cotton bales. The names Winged Elm and Cork Elm refer to the distinctive broad, corky wings present on some twigs. Wahoo was the Creek Indigenous Peoples’ name for the tree.
Winged Elm branch detail.
Because it thrives in part shade, it will often get infected with a powdery mildew and is susceptible to Dutch Elm Disease, which is caused by a member of the sac fungi, and is spread by Elm Bark Beetles.
Winged Elm branch detail.
The Creek Indigenous People seeped the inner bark of the tree as a remedy for diarrhea and to help ease childbirth. They also regularly wove bark fibers into baskets and ropes.
The Winged Elm’s interesting foliage is also a larval host to the Question Mark Butterfly.