Tilia ×europaea L.

Common Lime

A natural hybrid between T. cordata and T. platyphyllos, this is a broad-crowned deciduous tree to 20 m or more tall. Leaves mostly 7-10 cm long, 6-8 cm wide, tip shortly tapered to a point, margin sharply toothed, bright or dark green above, paler beneath with tufts of hair in the vein axils, fine tertiary veins raised; dull yellow in autumn. Flowers yellowish white, fragrant; late spring to early summer. Floral bracts mostly 8-11 cm long. Fruit thin-shelled but tough and hard to crush, surface faintly ribbed, Jan.-Feb. [T. ×vulgaris Hayne]

Widely planted in Tasmanian parks.

Leaves with tufts of hair in vein axils below; fruit thin-shelled and faintly ribbed; basal water shoots are often formed around the trunk.

NSW: Albury (Albury Botanic Gardens); Bowral (Gds); Orange (Cook Park). VIC: Ballarat (Lydiard St); Daylesford (Wombat Street, an avenue of 20 trees, the only example of this species used for street planting and forming a fine entrance to the Wombat Hill Botanical Gardens, mostly about 13 m tall in 1988); Creswick (University of Melbourne School of Ecosystem and Forestry Sciences, Creswick); Fitzroy (Gds); Narbethong ('Hermitage' 32 m tall in 1994, planted 1890s); Terang (Golf Course, about 17 m tall). TAS: Hobart (Parliament Square; St Davids Park, Rotary Tree of Friendship, planted 1932); Launceston (City Park, Kings Park, Cataract Gorge Reserve, Brickfields Reserve).

Source: Spencer, R. (1997). Tiliaceae. In: Spencer, R.. Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 2. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 1. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.

kingdom Plantae
phylum   Tracheophyta
class    Magnoliopsida
superorder     Rosanae
order      Malvales
family       Malvaceae
genus        Tilia L.