This is better called the David Elm, named after Father David who was a missionary to China in the 1800's. The species is native to China, Mongolia, southeast Siberia, and Japan. The variety of Ulmus davidiana davidiana is native just to either the continent or just to parts of western China; I can't find any really clear definition of range. There once was a Wilson Elm (Ulmus wilsoniana) which was its own species that was discovered in western China for western botany by the plant explorer Dr. Wilson of the Arnold Arboretum, but was dropped by botanists in recent times to be included into the David Elm species. This elm from western China was noted as having slightly bigger leaves with 16 to 22 pairs of veins on the leaves and that the inner margins of the notches on the samaras were edged with down. A number of hybrids between the Japanese David Elm of U. davidiana japonica x the Wilson Elm, which is now U' davidiana davidiana, were made by a certain Dr. Ware at Morton Arboretum in Lisle, IL in the 1980's and 1990's to bring forth some hybrid elms that would replace much of the loss of the American Elm from the Dutch Elm Disease that originated in East Asia. The David Elm is the species in East Asia that does most resemble the wonderful American species in that it has larger leaves than other Asian species and some selections of it have an upright, vase-shape, though other forms of the species can be shorter and broader in form. Work is still going on with developing American Elms resistant to the Dutch Elm Disease. A number of resistant American Elm cultivars are now widely available from nurseries, and the species itself also should eventually re-establish itself.

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