Common Lime

Tilia x europaea

Lime family (Tiliaceae)

Origin: Natural hybrid

Description: Tree up to 45m with a narrow crown. Leaves alternate, generally heart-shaped or with the base cut straight across, toothed, dull green above, with white hairs in the angles between the midrib and the main veins beneath. Flowers 5 to 10 in pendulous clusters attached to an oblong, wing-like bract, 5-petalled, yellowish and sweet-scented. Fruit 8mm long, ovoid to globose, downy, with slender longitudinal ridges.

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  Leaves are generally heart-shaped.

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  Each flower cluster is suspended from a distinctive oblong bract.

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  Fruits are hard and nut-like.

Comments: A naturally occurring hybrid between small-leaved and large-leaved limes. Once very common as a street tree but now largely replaced by more insect- and fungal-resistant limes.

Similar trees:

• Other limes