Irish forest types, elm?

Yellow_Fern

In Ireland, ecologists such as John Cross have classified a variety of woodland types eg. upland oak, alluvial woodland, bog woodland, sometimes yew woodland etc. There has even been talk of including the famous Burren native scots pine stand as its own unique woodland type. From what I can see, our native wych elm receives only minor discussion in these descriptions, even though its been present here in abundance since before the Neolithic. It appears as an accompanying tree for example in Cross's 2010 The Classification of Native Woodlands in Ireland and its Application to Native Woodland Management in the type QL3 Bramble-Hazel (Rubus fruticosus agg. – Corylus avellana) sub-type.

Naturally, elm is not as common a tree as it once was due to Dutch elm disease. However, it is a fairly dominant tree and I would have thought it was dominant to in some cases to be the predominant forest species. Is it neglected because elm dominant forests are simply gone and cannot be described or it that this impressive tree tends to be secondary to ash, oak and other species? This raises the question, where would Ireland best-preserved elm stands survive?

magicbastarder

Rackham lists hazel-elm as being the predominant tree cover of Ireland in prehistory, covering most of the country. I don't have my copy of 'woodlands' to hand, not sure if this link will work:

https://books.google.ie/books?id=7TmcDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT80&lpg=PT80&dq=rackham+elm+hazel+ireland&source=bl&ots=JD7nOPa-_Q&sig=ACfU3U1qwzPmjSLlBX_WKcGJyI6K_pVbSg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj198afx5fpAhUvQRUIHVOGBhkQ6AEwA3oECAQQAQ#v=onepage&q=rackham elm hazel ireland&f=false

Yellow_Fern

Id imagine that this prediction of Rackham is born out in pollen diagrams. I was interested to see that elm was listed as Aithig Fedo or commoners of the wood in the Early Irish texts though.

I think they have been somewhat ignored, because as you say, Elm woods are practically gone in Ireland. The disease only ran through much of the country as recently as the 1970s/1980s, but there was very little habitat based ecology carried out in Ireland before this.

I know of one wood close to Galway, that would have been Elm(Wych) dominated. All the big trees are dead, but most are still sending up shoots from the base, so a good elm understorey. Sycamore, Beech and Ash now dominate the canopy. Wild Garlic carpets the ground beneath.

Elm woods would, I would think have been elm dominated; elm is a shade tolerating tree, unlike ash, so like Beech and Hornbeam it could assert itself, reproduce and grow under canopy, and more than hold its own.

Any big, mature Elms I know that remain are individuals, seemingly saved from disease by distance rather than immunity.

Yellow_Fern

Interestingly research on species associate with elm list just 83 while oak is associated with hundreds. I wonder is this just due to the same gaps in research.

http://www.countrysideinfo.co.uk/woodland_manage/tree_value.htm