Related Web Page
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
This is a simple park and grab. If you are interested in learning something; read below for some information about this particular species of tree. The cache is quite simple and doesn't require any hints. There is room for small tradables and please don't take if you don't have anything to trade. Please use stealth when retrieving and rehiding this cache.
The American elm is a deciduous hermaphroditic tree which, before the introduction of Dutch elm disease, commonly grew to > 30 m (100 ft) tall with a trunk > 1.2 m (4 ft) d.b.h supporting a high, spreading umbrella-like canopy. The leaves are alternate, 7–20 cm long, with double-serrate margins and an oblique base. The perfect flowers are small, purple-brown and, being wind-pollinated, apetalous. The flowers are also protogynous, the female parts maturing before the male, thus reducing, but not eliminating, self-fertilization, and emerge in early spring before the leaves. The fruit is a flat samara 2 cm long by 1.5 cm broad, with a circular papery wing surrounding the single 4–5 mm seed. As in the closely related European White Elm Ulmus laevis, the flowers and seeds are borne on 1–3 cm long stems. American Elm is wholly insensitive to daylight length (photoperiod), and will continue to grow well into autumn until injured by frost.
The American elm occurs naturally in an assortment of habitats, most notably rich bottomlands, floodplains, stream banks, and swampy ground, although it also often thrives on hillsides, uplands and other well-drained soils. On more elevated terrain, as in the Appalachian Mountains, it is most often found along rivers. The species' wind-dispersed seeds enable it to spread rapidly as suitable areas of habitat become available. American elm produces its seed crop in late spring (which can be as early as February and as late as June depending on the climate) and the seeds usually germinate right away with no cold stratification needed (occasionally some might remain dormant until the following year). The species attains its greatest growth potential in the northeastern US, while elms in the Deep South and Texas grow much smaller and have shorter lifespans, although conversely their survival rate in the latter regions is higher due to the climate being unfavorable for the spread of DED.
In the United States, the American elm is a major member of four major forest cover types: black ash-American elm-red maple; silver maple-American elm; sugarberry-American elm-green ash; and sycamore-sweetgum-American elm, with the first two of these types also occurring in Canada. A sugar maple-ironwood-American elm cover type occurs on some hilltops near Témiscaming, Quebec.
The leaves of the American elm serve as food for the larvae of various lepidopterans (butterflies & moths).
Dutch elm disease (DED) is a fungal disease which has ravaged the American elm, causing catastrophic die-offs in cities across the range. It has been estimated that only approximately 1 in 100,000 American elm trees is DED-tolerant, most known survivors simply having escaped exposure to the disease. However, in some areas still not populated by the Dutch elm disease-carrying elm bark beetle, the American elm continues to thrive, notably in Florida, most of Alberta and British Columbia.
The American elm is particularly susceptible to disease because the period of infection often coincides with the period, approximately 30 days, of rapid terminal growth when new springwood vessels are fully functional. Spores introduced outside of this period remain largely static within the xylem and are thus relatively ineffective.
The American elm's biology in some ways has helped to spare it from obliteration by the Dutch elm disease, in contrast to what happened to the American chestnut with the chestnut blight. The elm's seeds are largely wind-dispersed, and the tree grows quickly and begins bearing seeds at a young age. It grows well along roads or railroad tracks, and in abandoned lots and other disturbed areas, where it is highly tolerant of most stress factors. Elms have been able to survive and to reproduce in areas where the disease had eliminated old trees, although most of these young elms eventually succumb to the disease at a relatively young age. There is some reason to hope that these elms will preserve the genetic diversity of the original population, and that they eventually will hybridize with DED-resistant varieties that have been developed or that occur naturally. After 20 years of research, American scientists first developed DED-resistant strains of elms in the late 1990s.
Fungicidal injections can be administered to valuable American elms, to prevent infection. Such injections generally are effective as a preventive measure for up to three years when performed before any symptoms have appeared, but may be ineffective once the disease is evident.
The American Elm's wood is coarse, hard, and tough, with interlacing, contorted fibers that make it difficult to split or chop, and cause it to warp after sawing. Accordingly, the wood originally had few uses, but was found to be excellent for making hubs for wagon wheels. Later, with the advent of mechanical sawing, American elm wood was used for barrel staves, trunk-slats, and hoop-poles, and subsequently became fundamental to the manufacture of wooden automobile bodies, with the intricate fibers holding screws unusually well.
Also take note of some of the bulbous growths on the side of the tree. This is usually where you would find some amazing grain textures in wood commonly called " Burl " which usually is quite an expensive cut of wood.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Hc va gur ubyr gb gur yrsg