{"id":611973660998,"date":"2025-10-16T16:41:46","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T16:41:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ashridgetrees.co.uk\/blogs\/uncategorized\/dutch-elm-disease\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T08:41:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T08:41:18","slug":"dutch-elm-disease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ashridgetrees.co.uk\/blogs\/trees\/dutch-elm-disease\/","title":{"rendered":"Dutch Elm Disease"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dutch elm disease<\/strong> (DED) is caused by Ophiostoma novo-ulmi<\/em> and Ophiostoma ulmi<\/em><\/strong> fungi, which primarily attack members of the Ulmus family (Elm trees)<\/a>.
The disease probably arose in the far East and was introduced to Europe in about 1910, arriving in the USA a few years later; it was just identified in the Netherlands first. <\/p>

European and American elms trees which had no natural resistance to the condition were much reduced in the early years of the 20th century.
DED re-appeared in the late 1960\u2019s in a more virulent form and by the mid-1970\u2019s 25 million elm trees have died in the UK alone, where full-sized elms are now virtually unknown. <\/p>

\"dutch<\/p>

The disease is spread by the female elm bark beetle. <\/p>

She flies at about 30 feet (9-10 metres) when egg laying, presumably looking for a more mature tree on which her young can feed. <\/p>

Her eggs carry the fungus which is carried into the tree when her eggs hatch and the larvae begin to bore into the bark to reach the cambium layer. <\/p>

In response to the fungal attack, an elm tree attempts to isolate the fungus to stop its spread. It does this by effectively blocking its own cambium layer which stops the flow of sap to affected parts of the tree. As a result, they die. <\/p>

The elm effectively kills itself above ground. Many varieties of elm sucker (produce new growth from existing roots) and these suckers can often appear after an elm has \u201cdied\u201d. <\/p>

They grow to about 30 feet (9-10 metres) in about 12- 15 years, reach the necessary height, are found by a female elm bark beetle and the process repeats.<\/p>

The classic sign of infection is that the leaves on one branch, more than 30 feet above ground level begin to yellow and fade well before leaves normally fall in autumn.
This will spread to the remainder of the elm over a period of years, depending on its size and age.<\/p>\n\n

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