Here you see the scarce Camperdown elm that I monitor regularly. This image was taken as the snow was stopping yesterday. The elm seems to be writhing in grief over a cluster of graves in the center of the Brooklin Cemetery.
The gravestone, but apparently not the body, of Rodney S. Blake is there. He reportedly was a 19th Century Brooklin sailor who was lost at sea. I’ve been unable to find the history of this particular tree, but it apparently is over 100 years old.
All Camperdowns (Ulmus glabra “Camperdownii”) apparently are infertile cultivars produced by grafts, not seeds. They all can be traced back to a unique tree created about 1837 in Dundee, Scotland, by David Taylor, the head forester for the Earl of Camperdown. He reportedly found an unknown young species of tree that was elm-like, but contorted. He grafted a cutting of his find to a young Wych elm, then planted that cultivar in the Earl’s garden, where it remains today.
Grafts from the Taylor tree started the line of Camperdowns that exists today, according to reports of the species’ history. (Image taken in Brooklin, Maine, on January 29, 2024.) Click on the image to enlarge it.