The American elm is the great vase-shaped shade tree that once arched over Main Streets and town commons across eastern North America — a fast, extremely cold-hardy deciduous tree of 60-80 feet whose upright trunk divides into a fountain of high, spreading limbs that meet overhead to form a living cathedral ceiling. That iconic form, and the species' tolerance of wet soil and tough urban conditions, made it the default American street tree for a century. Then Dutch elm disease (DED) — an introduced fungal disease carried by elm bark beetles — swept through in the 20th century and killed the vast majority of mature street and shade elms across the continent. The honest reality for a gardener today is blunt: do not plant the unselected wild species expecting it to survive. If you want the American-elm form, plant a DED-tolerant cultivar bred and selected for resistance — 'Princeton', 'Valley Forge', 'New Harmony', or 'Jefferson' — and say so plainly. Where it does grow, it is fast, hardy to USDA zone 3, and remarkably forgiving of wet ground and city stress.