Basswood (Linden)
Tilia americana
Traditional Indigenous Names 7
Cree: Napakátik
Ojibwe: Wiigob
Summary from Wikipedia 8
Tilia americana is a species of tree in the Malvaceae family, native to eastern North America, from southeast Manitoba east to New Brunswick, southwest to northeast Oklahoma, and southeast to South Carolina, and west along the Niobrara River to Cherry County, Nebraska. Common names include American basswood and American linden. The tree was introduced to the UK in 1752, but has never prospered there, being prone to dieback.
Easy Identifiers 7
Basswood trees have big heart shaped leaves that are often asymmetrical. In the summer their cream-coloured flowers are very fragrant. Basswood trees also have a fruit that is brown and hard, it droops down in pairs or clusters from a long leaf with smooth edges.
Form 7
Medium-to-large deciduous tree varying from a single straight trunk with narrow or long pyramid crown to divided trunks with two or more heavy wide-spreading limbs.
Bark 7
Dark grey, smooth on young trees becoming furrowed into soft, flat with scaly ridges.
Twigs 7
Alternating, smooth, shiny red or green wrinkled. Lenticels are common, elongated, rusty-brown. Terminal bud is broad, about 6 millimetres (1/4 inch) long, greenish-brown, shiny, composed of two tight scales and one lateral scale that is somewhat separated from others making it long-sided, lateral buds similar but smaller. Leaf scars moon-shaped brown, bundle scars few.
Leaves 7
Alternate, simple, heart-shaped, abruptly pointed at tip, coarsely toothed, lop-sided, 12 - 16 centimetres (5 - 6 inches) long.
Flowers 7
With leaves or later, cream-coloured, fragrant.
Fruit 7
A pale-brown, hard nut-like berry about 1 cm in diameter in small open clusters drooping from an elongated smooth-margined leaf.
Occurrence 7
Southern Manitoba from the Spruce Woods eastward along river banks.
Fun facts 7
Basswood flowers are a favorite of bees because they bloom in in the middle of summer unlike the majority of other trees which usually bloom in the spring. Basswood trees are popular trees to use as ornamental trees on personal properties, business lots, and in parks.
Sources and Credits
- (c) Salomé, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://www.flickr.com/photos/79667341@N00/4542334907
- (c) Manitoba Forestry, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Manitoba Forestry
- (c) Phillip Merritt, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), https://www.flickr.com/photos/phillipmerritt/251723935/
- (c) "<a href=""http://www.nal.usda.gov/"">National Agricultural Library</a>. Originally from <a href=""http://www.fs.fed.us/"">US Forest Service</a>. United States, ME.", some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://plants.usda.gov/java/largeImage?imageID=tiam_012_avp.tif
- (c) John Hilty, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/trees/photos/am_basswood2.jpg
- (c) Andrey Zharkikh, some rights reserved (CC BY), https://www.flickr.com/photos/zharkikh/7128784687/
- (c) Manitoba Forestry, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)
- Adapted by Manitoba Forestry from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilia_americana
More Info
- iNat taxon page
- Biodiversity Heritage Library
- BOLD Systems BIN search
- Calflora
- CalPhotos
- eFloras.org
- Flora of North America (beta)
- Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
- Go Botany
- HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants
- IPNI (with links to POWO, WFO, and BHL)
- Jepson eFlora
- Maryland Biodiversity Project
- NatureServe Explorer 2.0
- New Zealand Plant Conservation Network
- OregonFlora.org
- SEINet Symbiota portals
- Tropicos
- USDA PLANTS database
- VASCAN by Canadensys
- World Flora Online
