Return of the elm: Scientists and breeders are working hard to develop varieties that can withstand Dutch elm disease

摘要

Elms cast a spellbinding fascination due to the world's most devastating tree killer. Dutch elm disease in turn has given life and unstoppable momentum to thousands of research initiatives. Collectively they form a post-millennial watershed for science, and Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) is spearheading one of the latest, most promising breakthroughs. The clock, however, is ticking and neither scientists nor elms have time to kill. "An elm that is healthy in spring can be dead by mid-summer,"says RBGE science communicator Dr Max Coleman. "Yet we find healthy, surviving trees in areas of rampant and uncontrolled disease and nobody knows why."