English elm 'brought by Romans' An outbreak of Dutch elm disease ravaged the trees in the 1970s All English elm trees could be descended from a single tree brought here by the Romans, scientists say. Spanish researchers who examined DNA from English elm told Nature magazine they found almost no difference between elm from Britain, Spain and Italy. The findings support historical evidence suggesting the English elm is identical to the Italian Atinian elm. The Romans used it to train vines for wine, as recorded by Spanish "garden writer" Columella from AD50. Atinian elms reproduce asexually, creating clones of themselves....