Tilia is a genus of about 30 species of trees or bushes, native throughout most of the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The species are known as lime for the European and Asian species,
Tilia is the only known genus in the family Malvaceae. Studies of ectomycorrhizal relations of Tilia species indicate a wide range of fungal symbionts and a preference toward Ascomycota fungal partners.
Description
Tilia species are mostly large,
deciduous trees, reaching typically tall. As with
, the exact number of species is uncertain, as many of the species can hybridise readily, both in the wild and in cultivation. They are
hermaphroditic, having
with both male and female parts, pollinated by insects.
The trunk is stout, with pale grey to brownish-grey bark, smooth at first, becoming coarsely fissured or scaly on older trees; the inner bark, called bast, is soft, but fibrous, with high tensile strength. The wood is white, fairly soft, with minimal wood grain, making it popular for wood carving (see #Wood below).
The leaves of Tilia species are heart-shaped, and most are asymmetrical, with oblique-cordate (heart-shaped) leaves across, sometimes more, to 25 cm in the hybrid cultivar Tilia 'Moltkei'.
The flowers are small (10–15 mm diameter) and symmetrical, with five sepals and five petals; the petals are yellow to greenish-yellow, about twice the length of the sepals when fully open; they are strongly scented, and very attractive to bees and other insects.
File:Tilia x europea-2.JPG|Trunk and leaves
File:Tilia x cordata leaf underside.JPG|Leaf of common lime ( Tilia × europaea) showing venation
File:Tilia x cordata flower veination.JPG|The venation within a Tilia bract
File:Lime tree.jpg| Tilia flowers
File:Tilia cordata Owoce lipy 656.jpg| Tilia fruit
File:Memmelsdorf Schloss Seehof Lindenallee-20231101-RM-115618.jpg|alt=Double row of trees with yellow leaves|Lime avenue in Germany in autumn
File:15 year old lime-tree, Haute-Savoie, France.jpg|A 15-year-old lime-tree, Haute-Savoie, France
File:Linde - Stockausschlag.jpg|A lime after coppicing, Vogelsberg Mountains
Taxonomy
Subdivision
Species
This list comprises the species accepted by the Plants of the World Online (POWO):
The following additional species have been accepted by some other sources:
-
Tilia caroliniana – Carolina basswood (included in T. americana by POWO; accepted by Pigott)
-
Tilia hupehensis (included in T. tuan by POWO and Pigott)
-
Tilia nasczokinii (included in T. cordata by POWO and Pigott)
Hybrids
These natural hybrids are also accepted by POWO:
-
Tilia × cinerascens
-
Tilia × euchlora ( T. dasystyla × T. cordata)
-
Tilia × europaea – Common lime ( T. cordata × T. platyphyllos; syn. T. × vulgaris)
-
Tilia × haynaldiana
-
Tilia × juranyiana
-
Tilia × noziricola
Extinct species
Selected cultivars
-
Tilia 'Flavescens' – Glenleven linden ( T. americana × T. cordata)
-
Tilia 'Moltkei' ( T. americana × T. petiolaris)
-
Tilia 'Orbicularis' (hybrid, unknown origin)
-
Tilia 'Petiolaris' ( T. tomentosa)
-
Tilia 'Spectabilis' (hybrid, unknown origin)
Etymology
The
Latin tilia is cognate to
Greek language πτελέᾱ,
ptelea, "
elm tree", τιλίαι,
tiliai, "
black poplar" (Hes.), ultimately from a Proto-Indo-European word
*ptel-ei̯ā with a meaning of "broad" (feminine); perhaps "broad-leaved" or similar.
The genus is generally called "lime" in Britain[Brown, Lesley (ed.). 2002. Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, vol. 1, A–M. 5th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 1600.] and "linden", or "basswood" in North America.
"Lime" is an altered form of Middle English lind, in the 16th century also line, from Old English feminine lind or linde, Proto-Germanic *lindō (cf. Dutch
"Linden" was originally the adjective, "made from linwood or lime-wood" (equivalent to "wooden" or "oaken"); from the late 16th century, "linden" was also used as a noun, probably influenced by translations of German romance, as an adoption of Linden, the plural of Linde in Dutch
Ecology
Aphids are attracted by the rich supply of sap, and are in turn often "farmed" by ants for the production of the sap, which the ants collect for their own use, and the result can often be a dripping of excess sap onto the lower branches and leaves, and anything else below. Cars left under the trees can quickly become coated with a film of the syrup ("honeydew") thus dropped from higher up. The ant/aphid "farming" process does not appear to cause any serious damage to the trees.
Uses
Limes are widely used as ornamental trees when a mass of foliage or a deep shade is desired.
It produces fragrant and nectar-producing flowers and is an important honey plant for beekeepers, giving rise to a pale but richly flavoured
monofloral honey. In European and North American herbal medicine, the flowers are also used for herbal teas and
tinctures. The flowers are used for herbal tea in the winter in the Balkans. In China, dried
Tilia flowers are also used to make tea.
In English landscape gardens, avenues of linden trees were fashionable, especially during the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Many country houses have a surviving "lime avenue" or "lime walk", the example at Hatfield House was planted between 1700 and 1730.
Wood
Linden trees produce soft and easily worked timber, which has very little
wood grain and a density of 560 kg/m
3.
It was often used by Germanic tribes for constructing shields. It is a popular wood for model building and for intricate carving. Especially in Germany, it was the classic wood for sculpture from the Middle Ages onwards and is the material for the elaborate
of
Veit Stoss, Tilman Riemenschneider, and many others. In England, it was the favoured medium of sculptor
Grinling Gibbons (1648–1721). The wood is used in
marionette- and
puppet-making and -carving. Having a fine, light grain and being comparatively light in weight, it has been used for centuries for this purpose; despite the availability of modern alternatives, it remains one of the main materials used . In China, it was also widely used in carving or furniture, interior decorating, handicrafts, etc.
Ease of working and good acoustic properties also make limewood popular for electric and bass guitar bodies and for such as recorders. Percussion manufacturers sometimes use Tilia as a material for drum shells, both to enhance their sound and for their aesthetics.
Linden wood is also the material of choice for window blinds and shutters. Real-wood blinds are often made from this lightweight but strong and stable wood, which is well suited to natural and stained finishes.
In China, Sarcomyxa edulis grows well on decomposing logs of Tilia trees in the old-growth forest;
In Russian, "linden-made" (липовый, lipoviy) is a term for forgery, due to the popularity of the material for making forged seals in the past centuries.
Bark
Known in the trade as basswood, particularly in North America, its name originates from the inner fibrous bark of the tree, known as bast. A strong
is obtained from the tree by peeling off the bark and soaking it in water for a month, after which the inner fibres can be easily separated. Bast obtained from the inside of the bark of the
Tilia japonica tree has been used by the
Ainu people of Japan to weave their traditional clothing, the
attus. Excavations in Britain have shown that lime tree fibre was preferred for clothing there during the Bronze Age.
The
Manchu people in the mountains of Northeast China made ropes, baskets, raincoats, large fishing nets, and guide lines for gunpowder from the bast.
Similar fibres obtained from other plants are also called bast: see
Bast fibre.
Nectar
Tilia is a high-quality wild honey plant. In China, "椴树蜜/
Tilia honey" is produced in the northeast region. White in color, it is called "white honey" or "snow honey".
Heilongjiang is well-known throughout the country for producing high-quality "
Tilia honey": Heilongjiang not only has lush
Tilia trees, but also a rare and excellent bee species - "东北黑蜂/northeast black bee" to collect honey（
Raohe County is the location of the national "东北黑蜂自然保护区/Northeast Black Bee Nature Reserve". It is the only nature reserve for bees in Asia.
).
"
Tilia honey" mainly comes from
Tilia amurensis and
Tilia mandshurica.
"
Tilia honey" and southern "
longan honey" and "
lychee honey" are called "China's three famous honeys".
"
Tilia honey", "
Nanohana honey" and "black acacia honey" are the three most productive honeys in China.
Phytochemicals
The dried flowers are mildly sweet and sticky, and the fruit is somewhat sweet and mucilaginous. Linden flower tea has a pleasing taste, due to the aromatic
essential oil found in the flowers.
in the
Tilia flowers include
flavonoids and
with
astringent properties.
[Bradley P., ed. (1992). British Herbal Compendium. Vol. 1: 142–144. British Herbal Medicine Association, Dorset (Great Britain)]
The nectar contains a major secondary metabolite with the trivial name tiliaside (1-4-(1-hydroxy-1-methylethyl)-1,3-cyclohexadiene-1-carboxylate-6-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl-β-D-glucopyranose), which is transformed in the gut of to the aglycone (i.e., the gentiobiose group is cleaved), which is bioactive against a common and debilitating gut parasite of bumblebees, Crithidia. This naturally occurring compound may support bees to manage the burden of disease - one of the major contributors to pollinator decline.
Other uses
A beverage made from dried linden leaves and flowers is brewed and consumed as a folk medicine and relaxant in many Eastern European countries.
Usually, the double-flowered species are used to make perfumes. The leaf buds and young leaves are also edible raw.
Tilia species are used as food plants by the of some Lepidoptera; see List of Lepidoptera that feed on Tilia.
In culture
In Europe, some linden trees reached considerable ages. A
coppice of
T. cordata in Westonbirt Arboretum in
Gloucestershire is estimated to be 2,000 years old.
In the courtyard of the
Nuremberg Castle is a
Tilia, which by tradition recounted in 1900, was planted by the Empress Cunigunde, the wife of Henry II of Germany
circa 1000. The
Tilia of Neuenstadt am Kocher in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, was estimated at 1000 years old when it fell.
The Alte Linde tree of Naters, Switzerland, is mentioned in a document in 1357 and described by the writer at that time as already
magnam (large). A plaque at its foot mentions that in 1155, a linden tree was already on this spot. The Najevnik linden tree (), a 700-year-old
T. cordata, is the thickest tree in
Slovenia.
Next to the 英華殿/Yinghua Temple in the
Forbidden City in
Beijing, there are two
Tilia trees planted by Empress Dowager Li, the biological mother of
Wanli Emperor about five hundred years ago.
-
The excellence of the honey of the far-famed Hyblaean Mountains
-
Lime fossils have been found in the Tertiary period formations of Grinnell Land, Canada, at 82°N latitude, and in Svalbard, Norway. Sapporta believed he had found there the common ancestor of the Tilia species of Europe and America.
Gallery
File:AmericanBasswood.JPG| Tilia americana
File:Tilia-cordata2.JPG| Tilia cordata
File:Tilia henryana.jpg| Tilia henryana
File:Tilia monticola JPG1FeA.jpg| Tilia heterophylla (syn. T. monticola)
File:Tilia insularis 3.jpg| Tilia insularis
File:Tilia japonica.JPG| Tilia japonica
File:Tilia maximowicziana 1.JPG| Tilia maximowicziana
File:Tilia miqueliana3.jpg| Tilia miqueliana
File:Tilia mongolica0.jpg| Tilia mongolica
File:Tilia oliveri JPG1Fe.jpg| Tilia oliveri
File:20140508Tilia platyphyllos3.jpg| Tilia platyphyllos
File:Tilia-tomentosa.JPG| Tilia tomentosa
See also
-
International World War Peace Tree, a Tilia tree that stands as a sign of Germany's armistice with the United States
-
Matryoshka doll, made from linden trees
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St Lawrence Lime, a former lime tree in Canterbury, England
-
Tanzlinde (Effeltrich)
Further reading
External links
