Hurry if you want to see the Field Elm (Ulmus minor) in bloom, it will be over quickly!
To begin with, you have to find a Field Elm. That should not be difficult, it is a common tree. Probably you will find one on the banks of the Dordogne or another river. At this moment you can recognize it by the little reddish or pale balls that cover its branches.
A rather unassuming flowering, but until now the avalanche of spring flowers is not yet there, so those little flowers stand out.
Every little ball has stamina and pistils and not much else. Maybe a scale that covered the bud before opening is still there. The buds that are going to give leaves are still very closed.
The ball at the left begins to come out, the stamina grow longer and some of them show already some pollen. Also the pistils, looking like little white feathers, get out. The flower head at the right is already at the end of flowering, only some dried-out stamina still cling to it and the white feathers of the female flowers are more abundant now. The fruits begin to develop, they are light green surrounded by rust-coloured membranous scales and crowned by a pistil.
The same thing again. To the left a flower head at the end of flowering, to the right one at its start. As in many anemophylic plants (plants that need wind to dispers their pollen), the pistils develop after the stamina.
Maybe you don't think this stunning but...