diff --git a/weaver/xml_util.py b/weaver/xml_util.py
index 051bd24ca..b0605a281 100644
--- a/weaver/xml_util.py
+++ b/weaver/xml_util.py
@@ -45,7 +45,8 @@
 ParseError = lxml_etree.ParseError
 
 # define this type here so that code can use it for actual logic without repeating 'noqa'
-XML = lxml_etree._ElementTree  # noqa
+XML = lxml_etree._Element  # noqa
+XMLTree = lxml_etree._ElementTree  # noqa
 
 # save a local reference to method employed by OWSLib directly called
 _lxml_fromstring = lxml_etree.fromstring
@@ -59,7 +60,7 @@ def fromstring(text, parser=XML_PARSER):
 
 
 def parse(source, parser=XML_PARSER):
-    # type: (Union[str, BufferedReader], lxml_etree.XMLParser) -> XML
+    # type: (Union[str, BufferedReader], lxml_etree.XMLParser) -> XMLTree
     return lxml_etree.parse(source, parser=parser)  # nosec: B410