1. Ulmus L., Sp. Pl. 225. 1753. Gen. Pl. ed. 5. 106. 1754; Brandis & Stewart, For. Fl. of N.W. & C. Ind. 431. 1874; Hook. f., Fl. Brit. Ind. 5:480. 1888; Parker, For. Fl. Punj. 464. 1918; Hutch., Gen. Pl. 2:147. 1967; Melville & Heybroek in Kew Bull.26(1): 5-28. 1971.
RUBINA AKHTER
Deciduous trees with fissured bark. Leaves alternate, simple, biserrate, penninerved with oblique bases; stipule scarious, variable in size, caducous. Flowers appear before leaves on previous years branches in clusters, usually bisexual. Perianth campanulate, 4-8 lobed ,imbricate. Stamens as many as perianth segments. Ovary compressed; style short, deeply 2-fid, papillose on the inner side to the base. Fruit a flat samara surrounded by a broad membranous wing.
A genus of about 45 species distributed in the northern hemisphere. A difficult and problematic genus taxonomically and nomenclaturally. In the present text a broad view is adopted of the Ulmus wallichiana complex. Represented in Pakistan by 3 species. An additional species, Ulmus minor Miller (Ulmus campestris L.)is recorded by Parker (l.c. 466) and Burkill (Pl. of Baluchistan. p. 93), which needs confirmation
Doubtful or excluded species
Ulmus pumila L., Sp. Pl. 226. 1753.
There is no authentic record of this taxon from Pakistan. R. R. Stewart (Ann. Cat. Vasc. Pl. W. Pak. & Kashm. 191. 1972) mentions an obscure specimen, probably cultivated (Mission Hospital, Quetta). This might be a form of Ulmus minor Miller.
There are two other cultivated specimens collected by R. R. Stewart from Quetta; R. R. Stewart 895 is variously determined as Ulmus campestris L., Ulmus glabra and Ulmus pumila; R.R. Stewart 28162 as Ulmus laevigata Royle. Both specimens are vegetative and it is difficult to assign any proper name but the leaves in both specimens suggest some cultivated form of Ulmus minor Miller.
