The Oklahoman Editorial
As printed in the The Oklahoman, May 18, 2007.

The most famous tree in these parts isn't the biggest or the oldest or the healthiest. It's the American elm that survived a direct hit from the 1995 blast that took out the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.

All living, native American elm trees are survivors in their own way, having resisted the scourge of Dutch elm disease. This most "American" of trees, Ulmus americana, was a popular choice in cities and small towns because of its resistance to the perils of urban life. But the beetle-borne disease has killed an estimated 100 million American elms over the years.

Retailer Home Depot has a mission to restore the glory to the American elm. It's offering 12,000 trees in a disease-resistant variety at prices that vary according to size. Consumers will need convincing that this version will indeed be a survivor.

The American elm is one of four elm species native to Oklahoma, according to the Noble Foundation, which has a handy Web site (www.noble.org/webapps/plantimagegallery/) for checking out the state's flora. The other natives are the winged elm, cedar elm and slippery elm.

Popular in the tree-scarce West is an imported variety called the Siberian or Chinese elm. It likes drier climes.

Elms are one of the first trees to put out leaves in the spring but often suffer from heat and drought. Add disease to the mix and you get a shade tree – all-American as it is – that has less appeal at the nursery than popular upstarts such as the colorful but wind-challenged Bradford pear.

The elm has a downside, as country folk know: It can be quite the little weed. Root sprouts create an explosion of saplings. Cut them and they will come back four- or five-fold.

The comeback of the American elm is a thing to be welcomed if you're willing to pay $110 to $275 for this resistant variety.

This article appeared in The Oklahoman, www.newsok.com, on May 18, 2007.