Tiliaceae - Basswood Family
"A Year With the Trees" - Tree Number 88
Basswood Tree
Tilia americana
The Basswood tree leaves in the summer have this interesting lacy look.
The leaves are alternate and heart shaped, 4-6 inches long, 3-4 inches wide, dark green and shiny underneath.
The flowers come out in June and July. They have a sweet fragrance and can be smelled for up to mile. The flowers are tiny with five whitish petals that hang down from a green bract. Bees are attracted to the flowers and will cover the tree during the blooming. That is why this tree is called a Bee tree. The bees make a honey that is called "water white" and is delicious.
Teas are made from the dried flowers. I have not tried this, yet I am going to.
"Under the Tilia tree
on the open field,
where we two had our bed,
you still can see
lovely both
broken flowers and grass.
On the edge of the woods in a vale,
tandaradei,
sweetly sang the nightingale."
Walther von der Vogelweide (c. 1170–c. 1230)
This Basswood Tree lives at the Botanical Gardens of Asheville. All the leaves are almost on the ground today. Fall is in the air with the cool air and deep blue sky and the earth covered in fall leaves.
ashevillebotanicalgardens.org
This Basswood Tree lives at the Asheville Botanical Gardens. www.ashevillebotanicalgardens.org
This time of year notice how the buds are just getting ready to open. Soon the young leaves will come out on a basswood tree. I have heard that the basswood leaves make a very delicious wild salad, the greens being sweet and tasty.
Basswood trees twigs are red or yellowish-brown and smooth. Winter buds have three scales.Terminal buds are absent.
My favorite Basswood tree lives at the Botanical Gardens of Asheville.
For the love of the trees,
Becky
"A Year With the Trees" - Tree Number 88
Basswood Tree
Tilia americana
Spring
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| The Basswood Tree - Tilia americana |
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| The Basswood Tree - Tilia americana |
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| The Basswood Tree - Tilia americana |
This Basswood tree lives at the Asheville Botanical Gardens. ashevillebotanicalgardens.org
Summer
The Basswood tree leaves in the summer have this interesting lacy look.
The leaves are alternate and heart shaped, 4-6 inches long, 3-4 inches wide, dark green and shiny underneath.
The flowers come out in June and July. They have a sweet fragrance and can be smelled for up to mile. The flowers are tiny with five whitish petals that hang down from a green bract. Bees are attracted to the flowers and will cover the tree during the blooming. That is why this tree is called a Bee tree. The bees make a honey that is called "water white" and is delicious.
Teas are made from the dried flowers. I have not tried this, yet I am going to.
"Under the Tilia tree
on the open field,
where we two had our bed,
you still can see
lovely both
broken flowers and grass.
On the edge of the woods in a vale,
tandaradei,
sweetly sang the nightingale."
Walther von der Vogelweide (c. 1170–c. 1230)
Fall
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| The Basswood Tree |
ashevillebotanicalgardens.org
Winter
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| Tilia americana |
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| Tilia americana |
The Champion Basswood Tree
The American Forests champion Basswood tree lives in Kentucky. It is 102 feet tall and has a circumference of 276 inches. It lives in Lexington Cemetery. http://www.americanforests.org/big-trees/american-basswood-tilia-americana-2/
My favorite Basswood Tree
My favorite Basswood tree lives at the Botanical Gardens of Asheville.
Plant a Basswood Tree
This tree gives us Basswood honey, wood for carving, shade on a hot summer's day, and the wonderful scent in the air when the flowers are blooming.
Becky
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| Tilia americana...leaf drawing by Brooke Priddy Conrad |
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