Ulmus parvifoliaJacq.

Chinese elm

WFO wfo-0001143143 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Ulmus parvifolia, photographed by ALLIE BORGMEYER
fig. a ALLIE BORGMEYER, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-04 / obs. 203313881
Ulmus parvifolia, photographed by Jacy Chen
fig. b Jacy Chen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 179722567
Ulmus parvifolia, photographed by Michelle W. （鍾偉瑋）
fig. c Michelle W. （鍾偉瑋）, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 177487551
Ulmus parvifolia, photographed by 葉子
fig. d 葉子, CC0 1.0 / obs. 178001490
Ulmus parvifolia, photographed by Michelle W. （鍾偉瑋）
fig. e Michelle W. （鍾偉瑋）, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 168172978
Ulmus parvifolia, photographed by Jaime González
fig. f Jaime González, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 163148599
Ulmus parvifolia, photographed by Jaime González
fig. g Jaime González, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 163144645
Ulmus parvifolia, photographed by Leila Dasher
fig. h Leila Dasher, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 158064055

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 8 botanical countries

Regions where Ulmus parvifolia is native: China North-Central, China South-Central, China Southeast, Japan, Korea, Nansei-shoto, Taiwan, Vietnam China North-CentralChina South-CentralChina SoutheastJapanTaiwanVietnam KoreaNansei-shoto
Native distribution of Ulmus parvifolia, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
China North-Central CHN ASIA-TEMPERATE
China South-Central CHC
China Southeast CHS
Japan JAP
Korea KOR
Nansei-shoto NNS
Taiwan TAI
Vietnam VIE ASIA-TROPICAL

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Also published as 17 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Microptelea parvifolia (Jacq.) Spach
  • Planera parvifolia (Jacq.) Sweet
  • Ulmus campestris var. chinensis Loudon
  • Ulmus chinensis Desf.
  • Ulmus coreana Nakai
  • Ulmus coreana var. cycloptera Nakai
  • Ulmus coreana var. lanceolata Nakai
  • Ulmus japonica Siebold
  • Ulmus parvifolia f. lanceolata (Nakai) Uyeki
  • Ulmus parvifolia f. pendens Rehder
  • Ulmus parvifolia var. coreana (Nakai) Uyeki
  • Ulmus parvifolia var. cycloptera (Nakai) Uyeki
  • Ulmus parvifolia var. lanceolata (Nakai) Yong J.Li
  • Ulmus shirasawana Daveau
  • Ulmus sieboldii Daveau
  • Ulmus sieboldii f. shirasawana (Daveau) Nakai
  • Ulmus virgata Roxb.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.