Elm Grove

Elm Grove runs off Pembroke Street in Westown and was formed in 1963 as part of the development of the area from farmland into suburbia. Like so many other streets in the city, its name was chosen from a list of thoroughfares in Plymouth, England, a nod to the many early Pākehā settlers who came to Taranaki from the southwest counties.

There are dozens of streets named after trees in the old Plymouth, including Oak Drive, Willow Close and Hazel Grove. Such names were usually inspired by a wild area built over as houses were constructed. Plymouth historian Chris Robinson writes that “from the late seventeenth-century onwards, to name streets after trees… confer[red] the notion of ‘suburban gentility’ on a development.” Plymouth has nine streets named after elms, with its Elm Grove located in the east of the city near Brighton General Hospital.

Elm trees have traditionally been associated with death and the underworld, perhaps because their pliable wood was often used to make coffins. There are 45 different species of elm, with European varieties being the most numerous in New Zealand.

Introduced to Britain by the Romans, the English elm (Ulmus procera) is now rare after being devastated by a fungal infection that killed millions of trees worldwide. These elms are particularly susceptible to disease because they are all genetically identical, clones of a single ancient tree, and incapable of producing fertile seeds.

New Plymouth District Council has a number of elms listed on its register of Notable Trees, identified and protected due to their “outstanding historical, botanical, landscape, amenity or cultural value”. They include four Scotch Elms (Ulmus glabra), two Camperdown Elms (Ulmus procera camperdownii) on Matai Street in Inglewood and a Siberian Elm (Zelkova serrata) in the grounds of Taranaki Cathedral on Vivian Street – although there is no known record of the planting of this venerable elm, it was estimated to be over 100 years old when measurements were taken in 1969.

A rare English Elm still stands near the Kaimata Street entrance to Brooklands Park and a Weeping Wych Elm (Ulmus glabra pendula) overhangs the pathway between the kiosk and display houses in Pukekura Park.

This story was originally published in the Taranaki Daily News.