The Wych elm (Ulmus glabra Huds.) is, or perhaps more accurately was, a large tree native to most of Europe, and in Britain, was the by far commonest Elm in the north and west of the country.
It is highly susceptible to Dutch elm disease and is now very rare over much of its range.
The cultivar'Camperdown' was a popular small/medium size weeping tree for garden use.
The word wych has its origins in Middle English wiche, from the Old English wice, meaning pliant or bendable, and which also gives us Wicker and weak.
There are between 20 to 45 species of elm; the ambiguity in the number is a result of difficult species delimitations in elms, due to the ease of hybridisation between them and the development of local seed-sterile vegetatively-propagated microspecies in some areas, mainly in the field elm group.
In Australia, introduced elm trees are sometimes used as food plants by the larvae of hepialid moths of the genus Aenetus.