Identification

• White elms grow to be between 60 and 90 feet tall. Their crowns are rounded and spread out, vase-shaped or narrow and heavily branched depending upon the variety. They have dark gray bark and simple serrated leaves that range from 3 to 6 inches in length. The leaves are dark green with a rough surface texture; they change to yellowish-brown during the winter.
  
  

Features

• White elm trees are native to wetland areas ranging from Florida to Newfoundland and east to Montana through East Texas. They are hardy to U.S. Department of Agriculture hardiness zone 3. They prefer rich, well-drained loamy soil and tolerate various levels of sunlight and soil acidity.
  
  

Considerations

• Dutch elm disease, a serious elm infection, causes yellow and wilted foliage and tree death. Several other diseases include leaf black spot, twig blight and verticillium wilt, as well as elm mosaic virus and cankers. Elm leaf beetles, elm scale and bark beetles are only a few of the hundreds of insect species that feed on white elm.