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Home  /  Plants  /  Budburst Species  /  Tilia americana
Phenology Observation Sheet for Deciduous Trees and Shrubs

COMMON NAME

American linden

SCIENTIFIC NAME

Tilia americana

ALSO KNOWN AS

basswood

Plant family

Mallow (Malvaceae)

Plant group

Deciduous Trees and Shrubs

American lindens are perennial deciduous trees native to the eastern half of North America.
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OBSERVERS
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OBSERVATIONS
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Identification hints

Lindens, also known as basswoods, are highly prized ornamental trees with heart-shaped leaves with fine teeth on the leaf margins, uneven bases and fragrant yellow flowers. In winter, the twigs have distinct leaf buds at the tips that are reddish brown and shaped like slightly asymmetrical pointy eggs. Trees can reach upwards of 120 feet tall.
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Did you know?

Various Indigenous peoples of Americans as well as colonizers used the fibrous inner bark ("bast") as a source of fiber for rope, mats, fish nets, and baskets. The tree also has a variety of medicinal uses. American linden has small fragrant flowers that are pollinated by bees, such that the tree is sometimes referred to as "bee-tree".
DISTRIBUTION IN TH U.S.
Alabama , Arkansas , Connecticut , Delaware , Florida , Georgia , Iowa , Illinois , Indiana , Kansas , Kentucky , Louisiana , Massachusetts , Maryland , Maine , Michigan , Minnesota , Missouri , Mississippi , North Carolina , North Dakota , Nebraska , New Hampshire , New Jersey , New York , Ohio , Oklahoma , Pennsylvania , Rhode Island , South Carolina , South Dakota , Tennessee , Texas , Virginia , Vermont , Wisconsin , West Virginia
HABITAT
The American linden is found on rich, moist, well-drained and loamy soils. It rarely occurs in pure stands but it is usually found in deciduous forests, woodland and field edges, and occasionally planted in urban landscapes (although the European "little-leaf linden", Tilia cordata, is more commonly cultivated in urban areas).
ATTRIBUTES
Leaves
The leaves are alternate, unevenly heart shaped, and connected to the branch by a small stem (known as a petiole). The base is often nearly straight across (truncate). They are often 4 to 6 inches in both length and width.. The leaves are thick and slightly leathery, with toothed edges (margins). They are mostly smooth on both sides with some soft short hairs on the lower surface that give a slightly lighter color compared to the dark green on the top of the leaf.
Flowers
Flowers are fragrant and tiny, up to 1/3 inch in diameters with 5 pale yellow to white petals and sepals surrounding many stamens that are barely as long as the petals. A cluster of 6 to 18 flowers hang below a bract that looks like light-green skinny leaf.
Fruits
Fruits of the American linden tree are hard spherical nut-like berries, up to a 1/3 inch diameter, covered in hairs giving them a cream or greyish-brown color. Fruits are clustered in the same manner as the flowers, suspended below the leaf-like bract.
Bark
The grey to light-brown bark has deep furrows and flat ridges. Multiple narrower trunks may sprout from the ground, or singular wider trunks that can reach up to 5 feet (diameter at breast height) in parts of the species range.
Bloom Time
Flowering generally occurs between April and July depending on latitude. Flowering usually occurs 1 to 4 weeks after leaves appear and depends on day-length.

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