Ulmus serotina is a deciduous tree with a spreading, broadly rounded crown; it can grow up to 25 metres tall. The bole on larger trees can be 60 - 90cm in diameter.
The tree is harvested from the wild for local use as a food, medicine and source of materials. This is one of the four species that are harvested commercially for their wood, known collectively as 'rock elm'. The other three species are Ulmus thomasii (which is the actual rock elm), Ulmus crassifolia and Ulmus alata. The tree is sometimes grown as an ornamental.
Ulmus serotina Sarg., the September elm, is an autumn-flowering North American species of tree. It is uncommon beyond Tennessee; only very locally distributed through Illinois, Kentucky, Arkansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Alabama and Georgia, and disjunct into Nuevo León, Mexico. It grows predominantly on limestone bluffs and along streams to elevations of 400 m.Rarely exceeding 20 m in height, the tree has a rounded crown with spreading to pendulous branches. The glabrous young shoots become progressively corky-winged with age, and bear oblong to obovate leaves <8 cm long. The wind-pollinated apetalous perfect flowers form pendulous racemes which open in September and serve to distinguish the species from its compatriot, the cedar elm U. crassifolia, with which it readily hybridizes. The samarae are oblong-elliptical, 10–15 mm in length, deeply divided at the apex, and ripen in November .
