5/5 benje w. 1 year ago on Google • 22 reviews
Like
history
itself,
the
story
of
English
elms
in
New
York
hasn’t
been
straight-forward.
As
the
international
cousin
of
the
American
elm,
they
have
been
referred
to
as
the
foreign
elm,
with
debates
about
whether
they’re
native
or
nonnative
to
New
York.
This
specific
English
elm,
however,
speaks
for
itself,
standing
on
the
corner
of
Washington
Square
as
the
tallest
and
oldest
English
elm
in
the
city.
Historical
records
suggest
it’s
over
300
years
old,
making
it
possibly
the
oldest
of
all
trees
across
the
five
boroughs,
dating
back
to
a
time
before
the
city
as
we
know
it
existed
--
an
era
when
this
patch
of
land
was
part
of
a
vast
forest
expanse
known
as
Mannahatta,
managed
by
beavers,
black
bear,
wolves,
coyote
and
the
Lenape
people.
A
time
when
the
wild
housed
the
original
skyscrapers
of
the
land:
hickory,
chestnut,
oak,
sycamore,
tulip
and
elm.
Now
lovingly
referred
to
by
many
native
New
Yorkers
as
Elma,
this
English
elm
has
found
its
place
within
the
hearts
and
history
of
the
city,
as
English
elms
throughout
the
country
have
hybridized
with
the
American
elm
and
created
an
unknown
number
of
elm
species.
And
yet,
the
hardships
continue:
the
Dutch
elm
disease,
which
eliminated
up
to
one
hundred
million
elms
in
the
past
eighty
years,
forces
the
Department
of
Parks
&
Recreation
to
evaluate
each
elm
annually,
amputating
any
limbs
that
might
be
infected
before
the
disease
spreads
to
the
rest
of
the
tree
body.
Through
these
adversities,
misunderstandings
continue:
for
a
period
of
time,
Elma
had
a
suggestive
limb
that
stretched
out
from
its
trunk,
inviting
rumors
that
the
branch
was
used
for
hangings
during
the
American
Revolution.
Although
historians
have
debunked
this,
many
still
refer
to
the
tree
as
the
Hangman’s
Elm.
Despite
the
mislabeling
and
ongoing
threats
from
disease,
Elma
continues
to
grow
into
and
beyond
the
ideas
and
words
we
have
to
describe
it.
And
yet,
still
we
try.
In
his
19th
century
journal,
Thoreau
wrote:
“Many
times
I
thought
that
if
the
particular
tree,
commonly
an
elm,
under
which
I
was
walking
or
riding
were
the
only
like
it
in
the
country,
it
would
be
worth
a
journey
across
the
continent
to
see
it.”
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