purpurea was "probably of hybrid origin",[5] Ulmus montana being used at the time both for wych elm cultivars and for some of the U.

His discussion of it (1913) under U. campestris, however, his name for English Elm, may be the reason why 'Purpurea' is sometimes erroneously called U. procera 'Purpurea' (as in USA and Sweden ('Cultivation' and 'Accessions').

[6] The fact that 'Purpurea' occasionally produces root-suckers confirms a hybrid origin with some U. minor component.

See also 'Atropurpurea', possibly synonymous, raised by the Späth nursery in Berlin c.1881 and sometimes classed as a wych cultivar.

[13][14][15] Wych elm itself occasionally produces red- or purple-flushed new leaves,[16] the 19th century variety 'Corylifolia Purpurea' perhaps being an example.

[7][26] It is still present in Sweden,[27][28] but appears to have been rarer in cultivation in the UK; Wilkinson in his researches for Epitaph for the Elm (1978) had never seen a specimen.

[28] Introduced to the USA in the late 1860s as Ulmus stricta purpurea, 'Purple leaved elm' was stocked by the Mount Hope Nursery (also known as Ellwanger and Barry) of Rochester, New York.

[31] An elm obtained in 1922 from H. Kohankie & Son is listed by the Morton Arboretum, Illinois, as Ulmus procera 'Purpurea',[32] but without description.

'Purpurea', U. procera 'Purpurea' and U. purpurea appear in nursery catalogues dating from 1882;[35] these are now believed to be synonymous with the clone in cultivation there as U.

[10][36][37] 'Purpurascens' was sold by Searl's Garden Emporium, Sydney at the beginning of the 20th century and was "quite widely" planted in the south-east of the country, where it is said to tolerate dry conditions.

[10] Urban plantings include avenue specimens and scattered trees in Fawkner Park, Melbourne.

Six of the seven mature specimens growing there were felled in the 1990s; the seventh, near the east gate, remains healthy (2019) (height 20 m, bole-girth 2.2 m; labelled 03159 CEM).

In the Netherlands an old specimen, supplied by De Reebock nurseries in Oudenaarde, Belgium, stood until c.2010 in the Burgemeester Mijnlieffstraat in the town of Anna Paulowna.