Trees of the World
| English name: | SMALL-LEAVED LIME |  |
| Polish name: | LIPA DROBNOLISTNA | |
| Nazwa łacińska: | Tilia cordata Mill. | |
| Latin name: | from Western Europe to West Siberia | |
| Height: | up to 30 m | |
| Characteristics: | A tree with a regular, broad, egg shaped or almost spherical crown. Leaves are round, about 3-6 cm long, cordate at the base, pale-green on the underside with tufts of reddish hair in the vein angles. It blooms in June and at the beginning of July. Flowers are tiny, white-yellow, with a strong smell, 5-9 are clustered in a single infloresence. The fruit is a nut in a thin, coriaceous shell with faint ribbing. | |
| Additional information: | The small-leaved lime is a long-lived, valuable honey plant. Its soft wood is used in turnery and sculpture as well as in musical instrument making. It has great growing back capabilities and can be trimmed. Lime flowers are used to make a decoction used to fight flu and colds. During pagan times, lime was believed to be a tree of friendly gods. Lime used to be planted on the day a child was born, believing in a mystic bond between the tree's vital force and child's fate. It wasn't allowed to plant the tree until the newborn's first scream was heard. | |
