Introduction:
The lime tree world is very big, there are over 30 species of lime tree and we will discuss it more in the upcoming discussion. These species are known as linden and basswood trees, and they are most likely native to the temperature regions of the Northern Hemisphere. These lime trees can bring fragrance and beauty to your gardens. In spring, these lime trees can grace our gardens with their majestic fragrance, their white flowers also seem very diligent in the area. Their heart-shaped leaves also give a very unique and charming vibes.
The effect of Lime tree is not only limited to these types of aesthetic vibes, they are also beneficial for the worldly uses as well. For instance: the wood of lime tree is very light and very strong due to which it is used in making furniture and wood crafts for centuries. Moreover, it is also used in giving taste and fragrance to the tea.
Here in this blog we will go deep to the history and uses and many more specifications of lime tree.
Tilia:
Tilia is a genus of around 30 species of trees or bushes. For the European species the tree is known as linden , and for North American species it is basswood. In Britain and Ireland they are commonly called lime trees, although lime trees are not related to the citrus lime. Asia has the greatest number of species in the genus, although it is found in Europe and eastern North America. The Angiosperm Phylogeny Group has incorporated this genus and most of the former family into the Malvaceae after genetic studies summarized by Cronquist placed it in the Tiliaceae family.
A typical tilia tree will reach a height of between 20 and 40 metres (65 and 130 feet). Leaf shapes will be heart-shaped with an oblique cordate shape.. A hermaphroditic plant, it has perfect flowers that are pollinated by insects, and it has male and female parts as well.
In the family Malvaceae, “Tilia” is the only known ectomycorrhizal genus. Studies of ectomycorrhizal relations of Tilia species give a preference toward Ascomycota fungal partners indicating a wide range of fungal symbionts and
In Britain the genus is generally called “Lime” or “Linden” while in North America it is “Lime” ,“Linden” or “basswood”.
An altered form of Middle English lind is considered as “Lime”, in the 16th century also lime, from Old English feminine lind or linde, Proto-Germanic *lindō (cf. Dutch Linde, plural Linden), associated with Latin lentus “flexible” and Sanskrit latā “liana”. Within Germanic languages, English “lithe” and Dutch/German lind for “lenient, yielding” are from the same root.
Originally “Linden” was the adjective which was made from lime-wood (lime tree) or linwood”; after the 16th century, “linden” was also used as a noun, most likely it is influenced by translations of German romance, as an adoption of Linden, the plural of Linde in Dutch and German. Neither the name nor the lime tree is related to Citrus genus species and hybrids that go by the same name, such as Key limes (Citrus × aurantifolia). Another common name which is used in North America is basswood, and it is derived from bast, the name for the inner bark (see Uses, given below).While Teil is an old name for the lime tree.
Latin tilia which is cognate to Greek πτελέᾱ, ptelea, “elm tree”, τιλίαι, tiliai, “black poplar” (Hes.),and ultimately from a Proto-Indo-European word *ptel-ei̯ā which gives a meaning of “broad” (feminine); perhaps “broad-leaved” or something similar. In Chinese, “椴/duàn” or “椴樹/duànshù” which is a general term for Tilia species.
2. Description
The Tilia’s sturdy trunk stands like a pillar and the branches divide and subdivide into numerous ramifications out of which one is lime tree as well, on which the twigs are fine and thick. Well In summer, these are heavily clothed with large leaves and which results in a dense head of abundant foliage.
The leaves of all the Tilia species are heart-shaped, and mostly they are asymmetrical. The tiny, pea-like fruit attached to a ribbon-like, greenish-yellow bract apparently whose purpose is to launch the ripened seed clusters just a little farther than the parent tree. The flowers of the European and American Tilia species are identical, the exceptions may include that the American ones bear a petal-like scale among their stamens while the European varieties are devoid of these appendages.
All of the Tilia species may be multiplied by cuttings and grafting (which are the techniques of breeding or reproduction in plants), as well as by seed. They rapidly grow in rich soil but on the other hand they are subject to many insect attacks.. But Tilia is difficult to propagate from seed unless they are collected fresh in fall. If allowed to dry, the seeds go deep and take 18 months to germinate.
In particular, by the great supply of sap aphids are attracted, and for the production of sap they are farmed by ants, which ants collect for their own purposes, and the result can often be a dripping of excess sap onto the lower branches and leaves, and anything else but below. Cars that are left under the trees for long can rapidly seem to be coated with a film of the syrup “honeydew”resulting in it falling. Well the ant farming process does not appear to cause any serious damage to the trees.
3. History
In Europe, some linden trees have reached about a considerable age. A copy of T. cordata which is present in Westonbirt Arboretum in Gloucestershire is around 2,000 years old. There is a Tilia in the courtyard of the Imperial Castle at Nuremberg, which was settled in 1900 and it was planted by the Empress Cunigunde, the wife of Henry II of Germany circa 1000. The Tilia of Neuenstadt am Kocher in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, was estimated at 1000 years old when it fell.
The Alte Linde tree of Naters, Switzerland, is mentioned in a document in 1357 and described by the writer at that time as already magnum (large). There was already a linden tree here in 1155, according to a plaque at its foot. The Najevnik linden tree (Slovene: Najevska lipa), a 700-year-old T. cordata, is the thickest tree in Slovenia. Next to the Yinghua/英華殿 Temple in the Forbidden City present in Beijing, two Tilia trees; Empress Dowager Li planted, about five hundred years ago who was the biological mother of Wanli Emperor.
The excellence of the honey of the far-famed Hyblaean Mountains was due to the linden trees that covered its sides and crowned its summit.
Lime tree or Lime fossils have been found in the Tertiary formations of Grinnell Land, Canada, at 82°N latitude, and in Svalbard, Norway. According to Sapporta, he discovered the common ancestors of European and American Tilia species.
4. Uses
As an ornamental tree, the linden provides a tree mass of foliage or deep shade.It produces fragrant and nectar-producing flowers and is an important honey plant for beekeepers, giving rise to a pale but richly flavored monofloral honey. In European and North American herbal medicine, the flowers are also used for herbal teas and tinctures. In winters in the Balkans the flowers are used for making herbal tea. In China, dried Tilia flowers are also used to make tea.
During the late 17th and 18th centuries, linden trees were popular in English Landscape garden.Many country houses have a surviving “lime avenue” or “lime walk”, having lime tree in them, the example at Hatfield House was planted between 1700 and 1730. Originally, lindens were planted in lines as shade trees and became a symbol of fashion in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and northern France. In the British gardens most of the trees that were used were cultivars propagated by layering in the Netherlands.
5. Wood
Linden trees produce soft and easily worked timber, which has very little grain and a density of 560 kg/m3. It was used in making shields by Germanic tribes. For model building and for intricate carving It is a popular wood. From the Middle Ages onwards In Germany, it was the very classic wood for sculpture and is the material for the elaborate altarpieces of Veit Stoss.
In England, it was the favored medium of the sculptor Grinling Gibbons. The wood, renowned for its fine, light grain and relatively low weight, has been a preferred choice for crafting marionettes and puppets for centuries. Despite the presence of contemporary alternatives, it continues to be a primary material for such purposes even as of 2015. In China, it was also widely used in carving or furniture, interior decorating, handicrafts, etc.
Ease of working and good acoustic properties also make limewood (from lime tree) popular for electric and bass guitar bodies and for wind instruments such as recorders. The Tilia was used by Percussion manufacturers as a material to make drum shells, to enhance the sound and their aesthetics as well.
For window blinds and shutters Linden wood (Lime tree wood) is also the material of choice. Real-wood blinds are often made from this lightweight but strong and stable wood, which is well suited to natural and stained finishes.
In China, 冻蘑/”dongmo” grows well on decomposing logs of Tilia trees in the old-growth forest; therefore, people use logs of Tilia trees to cultivate S. edulis and even Black fungus or shiitake mushrooms with excellent results. Currently, “椴木黑木耳/Tilia-logs-black fungus” or “椴木香菇/Tilia-logs-shiitake mushrooms” has become a term for a method of cultivating black fungus and shiitake mushrooms and “椴木/Tilia-logs” no longer exclusively refers to Tilia tree wood but also to other woods suitable for black fungus or shiitake mushrooms cultivation.
Due to the popularity of the linden wood for making forged seals in the past centuries, In Russian, “linden-made” (липовый, lipoviy) is a term referred to as forgery.
6. Bark
Known in the trade as basswood, particularly in North America, its name originates from the inner fibrous bark of the tree, known as bast. A strong fiber is obtained from the tree by peeling off the bark and soaking it in water for a month, after which the inner fibers can be easily separated. The Ainu people of Japan have utilized bast extracted from the inner bark of the Tilia japonica tree to weave their customary attire known as the attus.
Excavations in Britain have shown that lime tree fiber was preferred for clothing there during the Bronze Age. The Manchu people in the mountains of Northeast China made ropes, baskets, raincoats, large fishing nets, and guide lines for gunpowder from the bast. Similar fibers obtained from other plants are also called bast: see Bast fiber.
7. Nectar
Tilia is a high-quality wild honey plant. In the northern region of China, Tilia honey” is produced. White in color, it is called “white honey” or “snow honey”.Heilongjiang is renowned nationwide for its production of premium “Tilia honey”. This is attributed to the abundance of lush Tilia trees in the region, as well as the presence of a rare and exceptional bee species known as the “Northeast Black Bee” (东北黑蜂), which is adept at gathering honey. “Tilia honey” mainly comes from Tilia amurensis and Tilia mandshurica. “Tilia honey” and southern “longan honey” and “lychee honey” are called “China’s three famous honeys”. The three most productive honeys in China are “Tilia honey”, “rape honey”, and “black acacia honey”.
8. Phytochemicals
The dried flowers possess a subtle sweetness and stickiness, while the fruit exhibits a somewhat sweet and mucilaginous quality. Linden flower tea delights the palate, thanks to the aromatic volatile oil present in the flowers. Phytochemicals found in Tilia flowers encompass flavonoids and tannins known for their astringent characteristics. Additionally, the nectar contains a significant secondary metabolite known as tiliaside.
(1-[4-(1-hydroxy-1-methylethyl)-1,3-cyclohexadiene-1-carboxylate]-6-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl-β-D-glucopyranose) which is transformed in the gut of bumblebees to the aglycone (i.e., the gentiobiose group is cleaved) which is bioactive against a common and debilitating gut parasite of bumblebees, Crithidia bombi. This compound which occurs naturally in nature can manage the burden of disease (one of the major contributors to pollinator decline) to support bees.
9. Other uses
In many Balkan countries, including Serbia and Greece, the beverages that are made from dried linden leaves and flowers are consumed and brewed as folk medicine and relaxant.Usually, the double-flowered species are used to make perfumes. The leaf buds and young leaves are also consumable raw. Tilia species are used as food by the larvae of some Lepidoptera.
10. Classification
Species:
– Tilia americana L. – American basswood, American linden
– Tilia amurensis – Amur lime or Linden
– Tilia caroliniana – Carolina basswood
– Tilia chinensis – Chinese linden
– Tilia chingiana Hu & W.C.Cheng
– Tilia cordata Mill. – little-leaf linden or greenspire linden and Small-leaved lime
– Tilia dasystyla Steven
– Tilia henryana Szyszyl. – Henry’s lime, Henry’s linden
– Tilia hupehensis – Hubei lime
– Tilia insularis
– Tilia intonsa
– Tilia japonica – also Japanese lime, and shina as well, when it is used as a laminate) †Tilia johnsoni Wolfe & Wehr Eocene; Washington and British Columbia
– Tilia kiusiana
– Tilia mandshurica – Manchurian lime
– Tilia maximowicziana
– Tilia miqueliana
– Tilia mongolica Maxim. – Mongolian lime, Mongolian linden
– Tilia nasczokinii – Nasczokin’s lime or the Nasczokin’s linden
– Tilia nobilis – noble lime
– Tilia officinarum
– Tilia oliveri – Oliver’s lime
– Tilia paucicostata
– Tilia platyphyllos Scop. – large-leaved lime
– Tilia rubra – It is a Red stem lime
– Tilia tomentosa Moench – , silver linden,silver lime
– Tilia tuan Szyszyl.
Hybrids and cultivars:
– Tilia × euchlora (T. dasystyla × T. cordata)
– Tilia × europaea – Common lime (T. cordata × T. platyphyllos; syn. T. × vulgaris)
– Tilia × petiolaris (T. tomentosa × T. ?)
– Tilia ‘Flavescens’ – Glenleven linden (T. americana × T. cordata)
– Tilia ‘Moltkei’ (T. americana × T. petiolaris)
– Tilia ‘Orbicularis’ (hybrid, unknown origin)
– Tilia ‘Spectabilis’ (hybrid, unknown origin)
Lime Trees: Beyond the Kitchen Counter (Citrus vs. Tilia)
The world of citrus has a pride: Lime tree. We have seen the history and its uses, lime trees and all these uses are not limited and crafting and something else, it goes beyond the kitchen counter.
However, the type of lime we use in our kitchens is not that one. When we think of lime, we likely picture the citrus fruit, not the linden tree. Here, lime trees (Citrus) are widely grown in tropical and subtropical areas for their edible acidic fruits. The Persian lime tree (Citrus ×latifolia) is one of the most common commercial varieties, though the smaller key lime, or Mexican lime tree (C. ×aurantifolia), is economically very important in many places.
The fruit of the lime tree is considered as the key ingredient in many recipes specially in pickles in giving it a sour and yummy taste. Limeade and other lime-flavored drinks have a flavor and bouquet quite distinct from those made from lemons (Citrus ×limon). The Lime fruit juice can be frozen, concentrated, dried, or canned. In the west Indies the Lime oil that is extracted from the peel of the fruit is processed. Citrate of lime and citric acid are also prepared from the fruit of the lime tree.
For reading more blogs click here
