# Slippery Elm (Ulmus rubra)

> The elm of the slippery inner bark, a fast, shade-tolerant tree of moist slopes and bottomlands, best grown in a wild corner among trees of other kinds.

Also called gray elm, moose elm, Ulmus fulva. Category: Uncommon Yard Trees. Grown from seed by Blue Whale Trees. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/slippery-elm/

![Slippery elm (Ulmus rubra) branch of rough, toothed, dark green leaves in summer](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/plants/slippery-elm-h1610-800.jpg)
*Photo: Alex Abair, CC BY 4.0, cropped · [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AUlmus_rubra_549207533.jpg)*

## Facts

- Type: Medium tree
- Mature height: 40 to 70 ft
- USDA hardiness zones: 3 to 9
- Grows wild in: Floodplain forests, stream banks, rich moist slopes, dry uplands, old fields and edges
- Native range: 37 states and [the District of Columbia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=DC), north and west to [North Dakota](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=ND) and south to [Florida](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=FL) ([Alabama](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AL), [Arkansas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AR), [Connecticut](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=CT), [Delaware](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=DE), [Florida](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=FL), [Georgia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=GA), [Illinois](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IL), [Indiana](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IN), [Iowa](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IA), [Kansas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=KS), [Kentucky](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=KY), [Louisiana](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=LA), [Maine](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=ME), [Maryland](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MD), [Massachusetts](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MA), [Michigan](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MI), [Minnesota](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MN), [Mississippi](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MS), [Missouri](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MO), [Nebraska](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NE), [New Hampshire](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NH), [New Jersey](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NJ), [New York](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NY), [North Carolina](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NC), [North Dakota](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=ND), [Ohio](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OH), [Oklahoma](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OK), [Pennsylvania](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=PA), [Rhode Island](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=RI), [South Carolina](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=SC), [South Dakota](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=SD), [Tennessee](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=TN), [Texas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=TX), [Vermont](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=VT), [Virginia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=VA), [West Virginia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=WV), [Wisconsin](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=WI) and [the District of Columbia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=DC)). Also recorded, not native, in [Colorado](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=CO)
- Sun: Full, Part, Shade
- Soil moisture: Average, Dry, Wet
- Growth rate: Fast
- Flowers: February to May
- Fruit: Winged seeds, April to June
- First crop: 15 years (large crops every 2 to 4 years)
- Mature spread: 50 ft
- Traits: Wildlife value, Drought tolerant, Tolerates wet soil
- Sold as: Saplings, Seed

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

## Availability

Saplings ship [bare-root](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/planting-bare-root-trees-on-arrival/index.html.md) or [in a pot](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/a-sapling-in-a-pot/index.html.md), [usually 12 to 18 inches tall](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/small-sapling-or-big-transplant/index.html.md), in the dormant season, and their height and age are stated with the price, once available. Live plants ship February to May and October to November. Not priced yet: leave an email on the web page for one email when it is priced, with a code for 10% off the plants in that order, not shipping or tax, or write to captain@bluewhaletrees.com.

## Notes

Slippery elm is named for its thick, slippery inner bark, long used for sore throats and coughs and still sold in throat lozenges. It is a medium-sized elm of moist slopes and bottomlands that grows fast while young and stands more shade than most trees. Dutch elm disease and elm yellows kill it as they kill American elm, so few wild trees grow large, and it is being replaced as a street tree. The Morton Arboretum, near Chicago, says it "is not recommended for planting anywhere in this region" because of Dutch elm disease. Its seed is messy, and its seedlings come up in fencerows and hedges. Set it in a wild corner or along a stream among trees of other kinds, well away from the house.

## Size, growth and what to expect

Slippery elm grows fast, about 2.75 feet a year in our growth estimator. Expect 40 to 70 feet with a broad, open crown 30 to 50 feet wide. It may live 200 years. The oldest tree dated by its rings reached 103. Only a tiny share of trees is ever dated this way, so older ones may exist.

It flowers in spring before the leaves, from February to May. The flat, round samaras ripen from April to June and blow away as soon as they are ripe. Large seed crops come every two to four years, beginning after about age 15. Songbirds, game birds and squirrels eat the seeds and buds, and the leaves feed mourning cloak and Columbia silkmoth caterpillars.

It grows wild from southwestern Maine and southern Quebec west to eastern North Dakota, and south to central Texas and northwestern Florida. It is most common in the Midwest and uncommon south of Kentucky. Maine lists it as possibly gone from the state, and NatureServe ranks it critically imperiled in Rhode Island and imperiled in North Dakota.

## How to grow Slippery Elm

Slippery elm grows best in full sun or light shade on moist, rich soil, but it stands more shade than most trees. It takes clay, loam and dry limestone ground, and soils from acid to alkaline. It lives through an occasional flood of two or three months but does poorly where floods come often or stay long. Plant it 25 feet from a wall and more than 50 feet from overhead wires, and set trees 30 feet apart.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Choose each tree's final spot at planting, since larger trees do not transplant well. Plant them dormant, from leaf fall until bud swell, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the root flare at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and keep the mulch clear of the trunk. Sow the samaras with their wings as soon as they fall in spring, a quarter inch deep, and keep the bed moist. Most sprout within two weeks. Some seed, most often from the North, lies dormant and needs two to three months damp in the refrigerator before a spring sowing.

Water weekly through the first summer and in long droughts after. Guard young trees with a tube or cage against deer, which strip the bark of saplings, and against rabbits, which browse the twigs. Prune in the dormant season to one strong trunk with well-spaced limbs, since severe ice storms break its crown.

Each slippery elm flower carries both male and female parts, but elms seldom set seed with their own pollen. The wind carries pollen between trees, so plant two or more if you want seed. Dutch elm disease, a fungus carried by elm bark beetles, clogs the wood that carries water, so the leaves wilt and fall and the tree dies. It is less severe on slippery elm than on American elm, but it still kills the tree, and it has no cure. The elms that resist it are named clones of American elm and of hybrid elms, and a seed nursery does not sell them. Elm yellows, spread by a leafhopper, also kills it across much of its range. The larger elm leaf beetle favors it, and cankerworms, scale and aphids also feed on it.

## Sources

- [USDA Forest Service, Silvics of North America: Slippery Elm, Cooley and Van Sambeek 1990](https://research.fs.usda.gov/silvics/slippery-elm)
- [USDA Forest Service, Woody Plant Seed Manual (2008), Ulmus chapter](https://www.fs.usda.gov/nsl/Wpsm/Ulmus.pdf)
- [Flora of North America, vol. 3: Ulmus rubra](http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=233501329)
- [The Morton Arboretum: Slippery elm](https://mortonarb.org/plant-and-protect/trees-and-plants/slippery-elm/)
- [Missouri Botanical Garden Plant Finder: Ulmus rubra](https://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?taxonid=287401)
- [NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: Ulmus rubra](https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/ulmus-rubra/)
- [Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: Ulmus rubra](https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=ULRU)
- [USDA NRCS Plant Guide: Slippery Elm, Ulmus rubra](https://plants.sc.egov.usda.gov/DocumentLibrary/plantguide/pdf/pg_ulru.pdf)
- [USDA Forest Service, Fire Effects Information System: Ulmus rubra](https://research.fs.usda.gov/feis/species-reviews/ulmrub)
- [Virginia Tech Dendrology, Eastern OLDLIST of maximum tree ages (Pederson): Ulmus rubra](https://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/olds/detail.cfm?genus=Ulmus&species=rubra)
- [USDA NRCS PLANTS Database: Ulmus rubra](https://plants.usda.gov/plant-profile/ULRU)
- [NatureServe Explorer: Ulmus rubra](https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.128125/Ulmus_rubra)
- [Maine Natural Areas Program: 2021 rare plant tracking list](https://www.maine.gov/dacf/mnap/features/rare_plants/2021_tracking_list.pdf)

## Read before planting

- [Ten planting mistakes that quietly kill trees](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/ten-planting-mistakes/index.html.md)
- [Transplanting young trees: timing, water and protection](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/transplanting-young-trees/index.html.md)
- [Protecting young trees from voles, rabbits, deer and squirrels](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/protecting-trees-from-animals/index.html.md)
- [How fast every tree and shrub we grow gets tall: growth rate, A to Z](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/growth-rates/index.html.md)
- [Multistem or single stem? Sometimes the trunk is hiding the answer](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/multistem-or-single-stem/index.html.md)
- [Leaf litter, not wood chips, under the canopy](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/leaf-litter-not-wood-chips/index.html.md)

## Related

- Other elms (Ulmus) we grow: [American Elm](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/american-elm/index.html.md), [Cedar Elm](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/cedar-elm/index.html.md), [Rock Elm](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/rock-elm/index.html.md), [September Elm](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/september-elm/index.html.md), [Winged Elm](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/winged-elm/index.html.md)
- Under its canopy: [Gray Dogwood](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/gray-dogwood/index.html.md), [Roughleaf Dogwood](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/roughleaf-dogwood/index.html.md) and [Bottlebrush Buckeye](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/bottlebrush-buckeye/index.html.md)
- [Planting-site check](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md): for a thrive, struggle or fail verdict on Slippery Elm, add ?species=slippery-elm with zone (2 to 10), sun (full, part, shade) and moisture (dry, average, wet) to that address; for example, the verdict for zone 3, part sun and average soil as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md?species=slippery-elm&zone=3&sun=part&moisture=average
- [Companion species for Slippery Elm](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=slippery-elm): the natives that share its ground and the plants that pair with it in a yard.
- [Transplant planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/transplant/index.html.md?species=slippery-elm): whether Slippery Elm can be moved and what the move takes, the root ball, its weight, who can lift it and the months, as Markdown at that address (add caliper= or height=, month= 1 to 12 and soil= sandy, loam or clay)
- [Growth estimator](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md): how the height and trunk projections are made; the estimate for Slippery Elm as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md?species=slippery-elm (add height=, years= and site= poor, average or good)
- [Seed sowing planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md): how Slippery Elm is sown, in the chart for every species (treatment, cold days, depth, timing); the dated plan for it as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md?species=slippery-elm (add state= and zone= for your own frost dates, method=fridge for the refrigerator route)
- [Pollination planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md): what Slippery Elm needs for a crop and how many to plant, in the table for every species; the verdict for 2 of them as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md?plants=slippery-elm:2
- [Planting-window tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md): when to plant Slippery Elm where you live, as a fall and a spring window from the local frost dates; the windows as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md?species=slippery-elm&state=MO&zone=6 with your own state and zone in place of those
- [Planting-distance tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md): how far Slippery Elm goes from a house, a septic field, a walk, wires, a property line and the next tree; the distances as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md?species=slippery-elm&near=house,septic,pavement,wires,boundary,tree
- [Bloom and fruit calendar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md): the months Slippery Elm flowers and fruits, in the grid for every species; its own row and the gaps of a planting with it as Markdown at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md?plants=slippery-elm