A hybrid lime of avenues and parks, its trunk fringed with burrs and leafy sprouts at the base
Common lime (Tilia × europaea).
Nature · Trees
Common lime
Hybrid of the two native limes · deciduous · avenues, parks and streets
Tilia × europaea — Malvaceae
The lime of avenues, parks and city streets is a hybrid between the small-leaved and large-leaved limes. It has burry trunks with a fuzz of shoots at the base and leaves that drip sticky honeydew from aphids. The Woodland Trust says it is rare in the wild in the UK.
How to know it
How to spot them
- ▸Trunk base covered in large burrs and leafy shoots
- ▸Lopsided, heart-shaped dark green leaves 6–10 cm, hairless except for white or creamy tufts in the vein axils beneath
- ▸Red twigs and buds with one small and one large scale, like a boxing glove
- ▸Clusters of two to five white-yellow flowers
- ▸Heavy aphid populations; sticky honeydew below
How to know it
Tufts of white or creamy hairs in the angles of the veins under the leaf, not rusty as in the smaller native lime
Common lime.
Buds like tiny red boxing gloves, one scale large and one small
Common lime.
Cars parked below it get sticky with aphid honeydew
Common lime.
A cross between the small-leaved and large-leaved species, ornamental and often planted
Common lime.
Its wood is used for carving and piano sounding boards, and its flowers were valued for honey bees
Common lime.
Quick-fire facts
- •Tilia × europaea: a hybrid between Tilia cordata and Tilia platyphyllos
- •Woodland Trust: rare in the wild in the UK; more common in urban areas and parks
- •Leaf tufts: white in common lime, rusty red in small-leaved lime; large-leaved has hairs all over the underside
- •Heavy aphid populations drip honeydew onto anything below
- •Lime flowers were prized by beekeepers
- •Wood is soft and light, used for carving, turnery, sounding boards and piano keys
- •Limes in France and Switzerland symbolise liberty and were planted to commemorate battles
- •Limes can be coppiced and used for hop-poles and bean sticks
Drill it — 7 cards
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Sources
- Woodland Trust — Common lime (Tilia × europaea)