Botanical Name: Tilia x euchlora
Common Name: Crimean Linden
Origin: Garden Origin
Location: CNW
Notable Feature: The most beautiful of the Linden trees because of its large, bright, glossy green leaves (euchlora means dark green) and the pleasing form of its pendant branches, both considered to be distinguishing marks of the Crimean Linden.
Habit: A deciduous tree, pyramidal when young and becoming more upright and oval with age; usually retains its lower branches which skirt the ground. Mature height is 40 to 50 feet with a 20- to 30-foot spread.
Flower: Fragrant, pale yellowish white flowers appear in May/June in drooping clusters, 2 to 4” long, and attached to long, distinctive, papery, wing-like bracts. Flowers are perfect (bisexual). When a tree is in full bloom, bees often visit in such abundance that humming can be heard quite a distance from the tree.
Fruit: Conspicuous, ovoid, nutlet attached to papery bracts.
Foliage: Lustrous, dark green leaves are 2 to 4 inches long, broadly ovate, and edged with fine teeth. Large tufts of small brown hairs can be found at the junctions of veins on the underside of the leaves, which are a paler green beneath. Turns a modest yellow green in fall.
Bark: Gray/brown ridged and furrowed.
Interesting Fact: Often called Caucasian Lime in England this hybrid is thought to originate from the Crimea in southern Ukraine around 1860, a cross between the European, Tilia cordata and the Asian, Tilia dasystyla. Trees in the genus Tilia are commonly called lindens, basswoods, or limes.