The wych elm cultivar Ulmus glabra 'Nitida' [:'shining', an allusion to the smooth upper surface of the leaves[2]], the smooth glossy-leaved wych, was described by Fries from specimens collected by P. C. Afzelius in 1841 on the island of Stora Karlsö, Sweden,[1] as Ulmus montana nitida, in Novitiae Florae Suecicae: continuatio, sistens Mantissam III: 20 (1842).

[9] U. minor is present on Gotland,[10] leaving open the possibility that Fries's Ulmus montana nitida was not pure wych.

nitida as having "all the essential characteristics of U. montana" [wych elm] but with leaves "shining and glabrous above".

[9] Ley (1910) noted that in the Kew specimen the samara was "rounder at the point than in the type", with the "notch distinct, its basal angle acute, reaching more than one-fifth [of the] way to [the] seed cavity".

[3] It was cultivated at Kew in the early 20th century as Ulmus scabra (glabra), the smooth-leaved wych, where it was described by Ley (1910), who had not seen it growing naturally in England.