Ulmus americana
An individual Ulmus americana was the largest street tree in Brooklyn (at 60.5 inches in diameter) and this species was the ninth most abundant street tree in Manhattan according to a 2005-2006 street tree census of New York City (available at: http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_your_park/trees_greenstreets/images/treec...)
This species is included in the New York Metropolitan Flora Project of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Click here more information, including a distribution map for the New York metro area http://nymf.bbg.org/species/495.
This species is grown by the Greenbelt Native Plants Center on Staten Island, NY. This facility is part of the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation and its purpose is to support and promote the use of native species in planting projects. For more information, go to: http://www.nycgovparks.org/greening/greenbelt-native-plant-center.
There are many studies that involve Ulmus americana, most likely due to its ubiquity and the fact that it it has been devestated by the fungal Dutch elm disease. For a review of the tree and the disease, see Hubbes 1999. It is often used in studies of stress response, for example Polanco et al. 2008 and Kozlowski and Pallardy 2002.
Hubbes M. 1999. The American elm and Dutch elm disease. The Forestry Chronicle. 75(2):265-273.
Kozlowski TT and SG Pallardy. 2002. Acclimation and adaptive responses of woody plants to environmental stresses. Botanical Review. 68(2): 270-334.
Polanco MC, JJ Zwiazek, and MC Voicu. 2008. Responses of ectomychorrhizal American elm (Ulmus americana) seedlings to salinity and soil compaction. Plant and Soil. 308(1-2):189-200.