Elm, Cedar

The Cedar Elm is distributed widely over the state, near streams in deep rich soil, and on dry, limestone hills. It is the most common elm tree of Texas, extending to the Pecos River. It forms a tree up to 75 feet high with a tall straight trunk 2 to 3 feet in diameter, and with an inversely conic round-topped head and drooping branches. It reaches its largest size on the bottomlands of the Guadalupe and Trinity Rivers.

The BARK is light-brown tinged with red, deeply fissured, with flattened, scaly ridges. The young twigs are finely velvet and reddish, sometimes developing thin corky wings.

The LEAVES are small, the largest less than 2 inches long, often double toothed (doubly serrated) and usually rather blunt at the tip. Their upper surface is dark green and rough, while the lower surface and petiole (leaf stem) are sometimes hairy.

The FLOWERS, which appear in the autumn unlike our other elms, are in small short-pedicelled clusters at the axils of the leaves. The FRUIT, an oval-shaped samara slightly more than 1/4 inch long, is hairy all over, especially on the edges and is deeply notched at the tip.

The WOOD is reddish-brown, brittle, and with a thick layer of lighter colored sapwood. The wood is sometimes used in the manufacture of hubs, furniture, and fencing.