About This Object
The Lime is a tall elegant tree usually growing to 30 metres, but a few giants of 45 metres are the tallest non-conifer trees in Britain. The tree has heart-shaped leaves, and each long-stalked flower has a leafy scale-like bract, very like the seed keys of the Ash Tree.
This tree is not connected with the lime citrus fruit; its name comes from a much older English name - linden, or lind.
The Lime is a cross or hybrid between two species native to Europe and the UK: Large-Leaved Lime, Tilia platyphyllos, and Small-Leaved Lime, Tilia cordata. These two trees are now rather scarce in Britain although the Small-Leaved Lime was the commonest tree in the British Isles some 10,000 years ago. The hybrid occurs naturally in a few woods in the Midlands. Unlike many hybrids, this Lime is fertile and will grow from seed.
Since about 1800 the Lime has been a widely planted town and street tree throughout the country and was once commonly used for avenues. It is very tough and survives severe cutting and pruning. It can also survive extreme damage to its roots when trenches for drains or cables are dug nearby.
The fine pale wood was much used for carving. It was also widely coppiced (regularly cut to the ground) and the new stems used for fuel, bean-sticks and Morris dancing sticks. Tea was made be made from the blossoms during the Second World War as a sedative!
The Lime is also the main food plant of the Lime Hawkmoth, Mimas tiliae, one of our largest and most handsome moths. The moth feeds on the Lime’s leaves in the summer, before crawling down the trunk to burrow into the soil. Here it turns into a chrysalis before emerging as an adult moth the following year.
Tree tag nos 2772, 2770, 2769, 2768.
This tree is not connected with the lime citrus fruit; its name comes from a much older English name - linden, or lind.
The Lime is a cross or hybrid between two species native to Europe and the UK: Large-Leaved Lime, Tilia platyphyllos, and Small-Leaved Lime, Tilia cordata. These two trees are now rather scarce in Britain although the Small-Leaved Lime was the commonest tree in the British Isles some 10,000 years ago. The hybrid occurs naturally in a few woods in the Midlands. Unlike many hybrids, this Lime is fertile and will grow from seed.
Since about 1800 the Lime has been a widely planted town and street tree throughout the country and was once commonly used for avenues. It is very tough and survives severe cutting and pruning. It can also survive extreme damage to its roots when trenches for drains or cables are dug nearby.
The fine pale wood was much used for carving. It was also widely coppiced (regularly cut to the ground) and the new stems used for fuel, bean-sticks and Morris dancing sticks. Tea was made be made from the blossoms during the Second World War as a sedative!
The Lime is also the main food plant of the Lime Hawkmoth, Mimas tiliae, one of our largest and most handsome moths. The moth feeds on the Lime’s leaves in the summer, before crawling down the trunk to burrow into the soil. Here it turns into a chrysalis before emerging as an adult moth the following year.
Tree tag nos 2772, 2770, 2769, 2768.