I think this is a weed where it's growing, but maybe not. There is this main trunk and some new shoots from the ground, but it was difficult for me to get close to the larger branches I wanted to photograph. I thought the long trunk with evenly spaced winged branches in a single plane, and the asymmetrical leaves with long attenuate tips were distinctive (and very attractive), but I don't think I've seen anything like it before. If I recall correctly, those thorny-looking things in the leaf notes were not prickly.
Thanks, Tyrlych. I thought of that first, but didn't come up with anything that looked like that, and the leaves on the one called Winged Elm seemed to have a different shape. I also looked around it for a larger elm and didn't see one, so decided that not everything with asymmetrical leaves had to be an elm. I guess I've never seen a young elm tree before. And I didn't look around me hard enough. The city's list shows Ulmus americana across the street, so if the list is correct, that should be what this is.
Ah. You posted this while I was typing. The city's list is not 100% accurate, to say the least, and now I see that the Vancouver Trees app even says, for Ulmus minor subsp. vulgaris, "Twigs often have corky wings" (but only in the short description, so I missed seeing that when I went right to the details *). Thanks. * Edited: yes, it does mention the corky wings in the details, talking about them being notably visible in Britain where the trees are used in hedgerows. I just can't read.
Look at them while you can, DED has been on the march here for awhile now - this region was perhaps the last stronghold for elms until recently.
Thanks, Blake. I wonder about this Nature Search page that describes that species as having leaves that are equal at the base, which is not the case here. There's a photo on that page of the samaras that are very distinctive. I didn't see any, but I'll go back and look around.
