English Elm shoots with Bracts

[peterbone]

After the first trim this Spring the new shoots grew with what I believe are bracts. I understand that these are modified leaves associated with flowering. The problem is that this means the shoots are quite long before the first leaf. See photo below. My question is, can I prune back to a bract leaf and hope that the shoot won't die back? How can I deal with these kind of shoots to continue developing fine ramification? Is there anything in particular that can cause these to grow?

 

[BobbyLane]

i get these often and prune as normal on my field elm never suffered dieback from pruning these i just treat them as a node, they back bud as normal. never heard the term bract before.

 

[peterbone]

i get these often and prune as normal on my field elm never suffered dieback from pruning these i just treat them as a node, they back bud as normal. never heard the term bract before.

Thanks. That's good to know. I wasn't aware that they were bracts either until I asked the Reddit tree experts.

 

[peterbone]

I can confirm that after cutting back to a bract, the shoot didn't die back and new buds have emerged at the bract.