Small-leaved lime (Tilia cordata)

Lime family (Tiliaceae)

Tree reaching heights of 30(35) m and girths of 2(3.1) m. Lives more than 300 years. Bark with long fissures, trapezoid in cross-section. Trunk base often supports suckers. Stems zigzagged. Leaves small, 3-6(9) cm in length, oblique-cordate, toothed; underside grey with clusters of red-brown hairs at angles of veins. Flowers hermaphrodite, insect-pollinated, scented and used by bees to make honey. Flowers in clusters of 3-10(16) in cymes with very large bracts extending beyond leaves. Nutlets small, thin-walled, downy, long remaining on tree. Flowers Jun.-Jul.

Grows best on fertile and mesic soils. Occasionally creates a uniform stand, but is most often an admixture species in oak-lime-hornbeam forest. Used in phytomelioration. Young leaves edible. A medicinal plant.

Descriptions devised by the team at the Independent Department of Forest Botany, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, i.e. L. Witkowska-Żuk, K. Marciszewska, W. Ciurzycki, A. Obidziński and P. Zaniewski.