A medium-sized tree, intermediate in tolerance found on moist bottomlands throughout the eastern U.S. with vase-shaped form of open-grown trees. It was formerly a common ornamental, now almost devastated by Dutch Elm Disease. Leaves are simple, deciduous, alternate, about 5", coarsly doubly serrate, usually scabrous above, and often pubescent below with an inequal base. Twigs are slender and zigzag. Buds are 1/4", acute, chestnut brown, 2-ranked, with 3 or more depressed bundle scars and with pseudoterminal often divergent. Fruit is a 1/2-3/4" samara deeply notched at the apex with ciliate wing margins which matures in spring. Bark is grayish with interlacing ridges and alternating light and dark layers of inner bark.