Judith Lewis

Personal Bio:

Faculty Bio: Judith “Judi” Lewis was the influential Director of Library Services at Moses Brown School in Providence, Rhode Island, where she enjoyed a distinguished career spanning over three decades. Serving from 1976 until her retirement in 2009, Judi anchored the Walter Jones Library through thirty-three years of monumental evolution, expertly guiding the school's literacy and research hubs into the modern digital age. Highly qualified for the multi-faceted role, she held a Master of Library Science (M.L.S.) degree from the University of Rhode Island, alongside her academic foundation from Wilmington College. Throughout her tenure, Judi was celebrated by generations of students and faculty for fostering an inclusive, welcoming environment that championed a deep love for reading and lifelong curiosity. Her structural leadership and unwavering devotion to the school's academic mission left an indelible mark on campus culture, a legacy later honored by the school community with a dedicated tree in the Arboretum at Moses Brown.

American Elm:

Scientific Name

Ulmus americana

Family

Ulmaceae

Description

American elm is a rapidly growing, perennial, woody, deciduous tree in the elm family (Ulmaceae), native to eastern North America. It grows 60 to 80 feet tall and 30 to 60 feet wide, with a trunk diameter of 2 to 5 feet. Older trees sometimes develop buttresses that expand their base.

Leaves are alternate, simple, ovate-elliptic, 4 to 6 inches long, dark green with a rough texture, doubly serrate (toothed) margins, asymmetrical bases, and a long, slightly curved tip. The undersides have soft hairs. Fall color is an undistinguished yellow.

Bark is dark gray, divided into flat braided ridges; firm on younger trees but tends to come off in flakes on older specimens.

Stems are smooth, brown, and not aromatic.

Flowers are small, inconspicuous, and greenish-red, appearing in drooping clusters of 3 to 4 in late winter to early spring (February to March in North Carolina) before the foliage emerges.

Fruits are single-seeded samaras—each tiny seed surrounded by a flattened, oval-rounded papery wing. Seeds are clustered on long stems and ripen in April to May as leaves reach full size.

Other Common Names

Common Elm, Gray Elm, Soft Elm, Water Elm, White Elm

Size

Height: 60 ft. 0 in. – 80 ft. 0 in.

Width: 30 ft. 0 in. – 60 ft. 0 in.

Source: North Carolina Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox

American ElmAmerican elm is a small to medium-sized (to very large) tree, at maturity with spreading branches forming a broad-spreading, fan-shaped crown. Leaves are alternate, simple, 4–6 inches long, 2–3 inches wide, broadest at or below the middle with coarse, sawtooth edges. Smaller teeth appear along the lower side of the larger teeth. Base is uneven. Upper surface dark green, shiny, mostly smooth to somewhat rough. Bark is gray, in cross-section with alternating brown and white layers, grooves deep, ridges flattened with thin closely pressed scales. Twigs are slender, reddish-brown turning ash gray with age, hairy at first, smooth later. Flowers February–April, in drooping clusters, red to green, small, petals lacking, the flower stalks originating from the same point. Fruits March–May, in drooping clusters on long stalks originating from the same point; fruit about ½ inch long, seed surrounded by a thin wing; wing broadest in the middle, notched at the tip, with a fringe of silvery hairs along the edge.