Zelkova sinica

Very rarely offered for sale in the UK, this Chinese species is increasingly scarce in the wild. Renowned amongst serious tree nerds for its superb flaking bark, indeed it is the best in the genus, with a multicoloured patchwork of jigsaw-shaped plates in different shades of grey and deep-orange. A small to medium sized tree eventually, for virtually any soil, acid or alkaline; often being found in alkaline soils in the wild, it is even very successful on extremely thin chalk. It has attractive serrated foliage and tiny winter buds.