The Wych Elm cultivar Ulmus glabra 'Lutescens', commonly known as the Golden Wych Elm, arose as a sport of a wych found in the York area in the early 19th century by W. Pontey of Pontey's nursery, Kirkheaton, Huddersfield, who propagated and distributed it. The original tree he named the Gallows Elm for its proximity to a gallows near York. Loudon in The Gardener's Magazine (1839) identified it as a form of Ulmus montana (:U. glabra Huds.), adding 'Lutescens' by analogy with Corstorphine sycamore, Acer pseudoplatanus 'Lutescens'.