Foothills. Roadsides, fields, lawns. Spring.
Near Yellowjacket Canyon, June 8, 2004.

Siberian Elms are a common roadside and farm tree and can be seen throughout the Four Corners region.  Long lines of Siberian Elms have been planted as wind-breaks, and lone fifty-foot crown-spread trees are common around farm houses.  Birds find homes, bugs, and seeds in the Elms.

Ulmus pumila was introduced from Asia and has spread widely because it is drought tolerant and produces numerous seeds which sprout and root easily, especially in areas that receive some moisture: roadsides, gardens, edges of buildings. Because Ulmus pumila does not choke waterways, does not reproduce in tangled thickets, and does not suck dry aquifers, it does not pose the same serious ecological problem as another common, non-native Southwest plant, Tamarisk. 

Foothills. Roadsides, fields, lawns. Spring.
Near Yellowjacket Canyon, June 8, 2004.

Foothills. Roadsides, fields, lawns. Spring.

Near Yellowjacket Canyon, June 12, 2001.

Foothills. Roadsides, fields, lawns. Spring.
Near Yellowjacket Canyon, February 24, 2004.

Winter shows the stretching, arching skeletal structure of these 50 foot Siberian Elms. The Elm on the right is about two feet in diameter.  The fuzzy white area just above the fence, in this Elm, is snow-fall from the Red Winged Blackbirds that landed in the trees as I took the picture. 

Foothills. Roadsides, fields, lawns. Spring.
Near Yellowjacket Canyon, March 11, 2004.

Warmer days came just two weeks after the above snowy picture and buds swelled with new growth.