Elm or Zelkova ID

[W3rk]

Hey all, so I've got this tree, purchased as a small starter from Meehan's last year. They had it labelled as the following: Zelkova "Yezen" - Japanese Greybark Elm. I know there are some issues with interchanged usage of Elm and Zelkova and that they are related. But I was curious if anyone might be familiar and able to provide a proper ID? I've found nothing searching on Yezen. It's a very cool tree, in spring the leaves have this great transition from yellow to green. And even at a young age the bark is rather corky already.

 

[AlainK]

To me, it looks like 65% Zelkova and 35% Ulmus. Two dofferent species in the same family, or even the same genus if misnamed from Japanese to another language.

The elms I "know" have coarser leaves, but I'd really like to hear from the others here...

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Base of the leaf, where it joins the petiole, the base is symmetrical. That is Zelkova. Elms the base of the leaves is asymmetric.

Mehan's know their trees, if they label it Zelkova, it probably really is a Zelkova.

 

[W3rk]

Thanks Leo, I've seen those descriptions about the leaf shape before, but had forgotten. Thank you for the information, great to know.

And agreed, Meehan's know their stuff, but sometimes they can be a bit ... disorganized.

 

[Mikecheck123]

This is 100% a zelkova. It's a bit confusing with the stage in your pic because their leaves go through an awkward "teenage stage" when leafing out where they're all misshapen and have different proportions. It'll be a couple of weeks before they finally reach maturity and assume the perfect shape that zelkovas are known for.

Chinese elms do something much different: the leaves emerge as tiny, already perfectly formed versions of themselves.