T. w-album and resistant elm trees

P. Stadel Nielsen fdki at post2.tele.dk
Wed Jun 25 10:43:14 EDT 1997


Hi all,

I have just seen a small article in the latest issue of National Geografic
(June 1997) about Elm trees sesistent to Dutch elm disease. Two strains
should now be available in garden nurseries.

My questions is now:

Does anybody know if these elms are available in Europe?

Are there any American butterfly (or moth) species dependent on flowering
elm trees and will these species accept the new resistant elms?

As you perhaps know, in Europe we have Satyrium w-album (White letter
hairstreak) which is dependent on mature elm trees with flowers, as the
caterpillers feed in the seeds. In Denmark the Dutch Elm Disease is these
years heavily killing trees in Denmark. This will severely hit w-album, at
the moment still a rather common species by us, but it will during the next
years disappear from most localities if the elms continues dying. If
resistant elms could be plantet now, it should be possible to conserve many
populations of w-album.

Regards
Per Stadel Nielsen



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