37. Howff Elm
An extremely pendulous Camperdown elm lurks in Dundee’s historic Howff burial ground.
Eerie Howff graveyard across from the road from the DC Thomson building, home of ‘The Beano’, is resplendent with the supernatural silhouettes of its flourishing elms. At the southern end, the finest is a scion of the original Camperdown elm, a Dundonian cultivar of wych elm that arose in the city’s Camperdown Park. The Howff Elm has been grafted at human head height onto a standard wych elm allowing the adventurous to get under the canopy to examine the extreme contortions of its branches, a particular spectacle in winter.
Species details
Camperdown Elm
Ulmus glabra 'Camperdownii'
Where to find it
The Howff, 4 Meadowside, Dundee DD1 1AA
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Camperdown elm notes
Tucked away near the Wildlife Centre in Dundee’s Camperdown Country Park, the original diminutive and fabulously contorted Camperdown elm can be found. Around 1835, it was discovered growing in nearby woods and was transplanted to what is now a public park, but was once the grounds of aristocratic Camperdown House. Every other Camperdown elm is a scion of this little tree. Being the original, this one has not been grafted onto a standard wych elm (Ulmus glabra), so it remains a small, old and distinguished parent. Sadly, Camperdown elms are particularly susceptible to Dutch elm disease, so the thriving trees in Dundee are of great importance both to the city and the world’s cultural and botanical history.
