Tilia americana

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Tilia americana

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Magnoliophyta
Class:	Magnoliopsida
Order:	Malvales
Family:	Malvaceae
Genus:	Tilia
Species:	T. americana

Binomial name

Tilia americana
L.

Tilia americana is a medium-sized to large deciduous tree in the genus Tilia, native to eastern North America. It occurs from southeast Manitoba east to New Brunswick, southwest to northeast Texas, and southeast to South Carolina. Its range fingers west along the Niobrara River to Cherry County, Nebraska. Common names include Basswood (also applied to other species of Tilia in the timber trade) and American Linden.

It has a domed crown, reaching a height of 20-35 m, with a trunk diameter of 1-1.2 m. The bark is gray with narrow, well defined fissures. Trunks tend to have constant width up most of the tree, tapering only at the top. The twigs are reddish-green. The leaves are simple, alternately arranged, ovate to cordate, inequalateral at the base, 10-15 cm (exceptionally 25 cm) long and broad, with a coarsely serrated margin and an acuminate apex. The fall color is yellow-green to yellow. The buds have two bud scales.

It flowers in early spring. The flowers are small, fragrant, yellowish-white, arranged in drooping, cymose clusters in groups of 3-10 with a whitish-green leaf-like bract at the base of the cyme. The flowers are pollinated by bees. The fruit is a small, round, tomentose, cream-colored nutlet with a diameter of 7-10 mm. On the stem they are paired in clusters, subtending a leafy bract.

Cultivars include 'Nova' and the conic-crowned 'Redmond'.

[edit] Ecology

This species is dominant in the Acer saccharum - Tilia americana association. This forest cover type is most common in western Wisconsin and central Minnesota, but occurs as far east as New England and southern Quebec where the soils are mesic with relatively high pH. Basswood has minor occurrence in many other forest cover types.

Its flowers provide abundant nectar for insects. The seeds are eaten by chipmunks, mice and squirrels. Rabbits and voles eat the bark, sometimes girdling young trees. This species is particularly susceptible to adult Japanese beetles feeding on its leaves ^[1]