Information about Tilia

Tilia
Tilia platyphyllos Tilia platyphyllos
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae Division: Magnoliophyta Class: Magnoliopsida Order: Malvales Family: Malvaceae Genus: Tilia L.
Species
About 30; see text

Tilia is a genus of about 30 species of trees, native throughout most of the temperate Northern Hemisphere, in Asia (where the greatest species diversity is found), Europe and eastern North America; it is not native to western North America. Under the Cronquist classification system, this genus was placed in the family Tiliaceae, but genetic research by the APG has resulted in the incorporation of this family into the Malvaceae.

The trees are generally called lime in Britain and linden in North America. Both names are derived from the Germanic root lind. The modern forms in English derive from linde or linne in Anglo Saxon and old Norse, and in Britain the word transformed more recently to the modern British form lime. In the United States, the modern German name Linden (pl), from the same root, became more common, partly to avoid confusion with any other uses of the name. Neither the name nor the tree is related to the citrus fruit called "lime" (Citrus aurantifolia, family Rutaceae). Another widely-used common name used in North America is Basswood, derived from bast, the name for the inner bark (see Uses, below).

Tilia species are large deciduous trees, reaching typically 20-40 m tall, with oblique-cordate leaves 6-20 cm across, and are found through the north temperate regions. The exact number of species is subject to considerable uncertainty, as many or most of the species will hybridise readily, both in the wild and in cultivation; the following list comprises those most widely accepted.

Species

• Tilia americana Basswood or American Linden
• Tilia amurensis Amur Lime or Amur Linden
• Tilia begoniifolia
• Tilia caroliniana Carolina Basswood
• Tilia chinensis
• Tilia chingiana
• Tilia cordata Small-leaved Lime or Little-leaf Linden
• Tilia mongolica Mongolian Lime or Mongolian Linden
• Tilia dasystyla
• Tilia europaea European Lime
• Tilia henryana Henry's Lime or Henry's Linden
• Tilia heterophylla White Basswood
• Tilia hupehensis Hubei Lime
• Tilia insularis
• Tilia intonsa
• Tilia japonica Japanese Lime
• Tilia kiusiana
• Tilia mandshurica Manchurian Lime
• Tilia maximowicziana
• Tilia mexicana
• Tilia miqueliana
• Tilia mongolica Mongolian Lime or Mongolian Linden
• Tilia nobilis
• Tilia occidentalis - West lime
• Tilia oliveri Oliver's Lime
• Tilia paucicostata
• Tilia platyphyllos Large-leaved Lime
• Tilia rubra - Kafkas lime
• Tilia tomentosa Silver Lime or Silver Linden
• Tilia tuan

Hybrids and cultivars

• Tilia × euchlora (T. dasystyla × T. platyphyllos)
• Tilia × vulgaris Common Lime (T. cordata × T. platyphyllos; syn. T. × europaea)
• Tilia × petiolaris (T. tomentosa × T. ?)
• Tilia 'Flavescens' (T. americana × T. cordata)
• Tilia 'Moltkei' (hybrid, unknown origin)
• Tilia 'Orbicularis' (hybrid, unknown origin)
• Tilia 'Spectabilis' (hybrid, unknown origin)

Description

The Linden's sturdy trunk stands like a pillar and the branches divide and subdivide into numerous ramifications on which the spray is small and thick. In summer this is profusely clothed with large leaves and the result is a dense head of abundant foliage.^[1]

The leaves of all the lindens are one-sided, always heart-shaped, and the tiny fruit, looking like peas, always hangs attached to a curious, ribbon-like, greenish yellow bract, whose use seems to be to launch the ripened seed-clusters just a little beyond the parent tree. The flowers of the European and American lindens are similar, except that the American bears a petal-like scale among its stamens and the European varieties are destitute of these appendages. All of the lindens may be propagated by cuttings and grafting as well as by seed. They grow rapidly in a rich soil, but are subject to the attacks of many insect enemies.^[1]

Uses

The Linden is to be recommended as an ornamental tree when a mass of foliage or a deep shade is desired.^[1] The tree produces fragrant and nectar-producing flowers, the medicinal herb lime blossom. They are very important honey plants for beekeepers, producing a very pale but richly flavoured monofloral honey. The flowers are also used for herbal tea, and this infusion is particularly popular in Europe.

T. cordata is the preferred species for medical use, having a high concentration of active compounds. It is said to be a nervine, used by herbalists in treating restlessness, hysteria, and headaches. Usually, the double-flowered lindens are used to make perfumes. The leaf buds and young leaves are also edible raw. Tilia species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species - see List of Lepidoptera which feed on Tilia.

The timber of lime trees is soft and easily worked, so it is a popular wood for carving. The wood is often used for model building and intricate carving, and for making electric guitar bodies. Other musical instrument uses include its use for wind instruments such as recorders. It is also the wood of choice for the window-blinds and shutters industries. Real wood blinds are often made from this lightweight but strong and stable wood which is well suited to natural and stained finishes.

It is known in the trade as basswood, particularly in North America. This name originates from the inner fibrous bark of the tree, known as bast (Old English language). A very strong fibre was obtained from this, by peeling off the bark and soaking in water for a month; after which the inner fibres can be easily separated. Bast obtained from the inside of the bark of the lime tree has been used by the Ainu people of Japan to weave their traditional clothing, the attus.

In the percussion industry, basswood is sometimes used as a material for drum shells, both to enhance their sound and their esthetics. Mapex VX, Sonor Force 507, Pearl Vision, Tama Superstar, and Ludwig Accent drums all contain basswood plies.

Basswood is also frequently used as a material for electric guitar bodies. In the past, it was typically used (along with agathis) for favoured for less-expensive models. However, due to its better resonance at mid and high frequency, and better sustain than alder, it is now more commonly in uses with all kinds of superstrats, such as Ibanez RG, Ibanez JEM, and even Jackson Soloist, among other superstrats.

History

In Europe, Lime trees are known to have reached ages measured in centuries. In the courtyard of the Imperial Castle at Nuremberg is a lime which tradition says was planted by the Empress Cunigunde, the wife of Henry II of Germany. This would make the tree about nine hundred years old (when it was described in 1900 ). It looks ancient and infirm, but in 1900 was sending forth thrifty leaves on its two or three remaining branches and was of course cared for tenderly. The famous Lime of Neustadt on the Kocher in Würtemberg was computed to be one thousand years old when it fell.^[1]. The Alte Linde tree of Naters, Switzerland, is already mentioned in a document in 1357 and described by the writer at that time as already "magnam" (huge). A plaque at its foot mentions that in 1155 a Lime tree was already on this spot.

• The excellence of the honey of far-famed Hybla was due to the lime trees that covered its sides and crowned its summit.
• The name of Linnaeus, the great botanist, was derived from a lime tree.
• Tilia appears in the tertiary formations of Grinnel Land in 82° north latitude, and in Spitsbergen. Sapporta believed that he found there the common ancestor of the limes of Europe and America.^[1]

Cultural significance

The lime tree is a national emblem of Slovakia, Slovenia and the Czech Republic, where it is called lipa (in Slovak, Polish, and Slovenian) and lípa (in Czech). The tree also has cultural and spiritual significance in Hungary, where it is called hars(fa).The Croatian currency, kuna, consists of 100 lipa, also meaning "linden". The lime tree is also the tree of legend of the Slavs. In the Slavic Orthodox Christian world, limewood was the preferred wood for panel icon painting. The famous icons by the hand of Andrei Rublev, including the Holy Trinity (Hospitality of Abraham), and The Savior, now in the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, are painted on limewood. Limewood was chosen for its ability to be sanded very smooth, and for its resistance to warping once seasoned.

The national poet of Romania, Mihai Eminescu, was known to receive poetic inspiration from a linden tree in the Copou Gardens under which he would compose.

The most famous street in Berlin, Germany is called Unter den Linden or Under the lindens, named after the linden trees lining the boulevard. In German folklore, the linden tree is the "tree of lovers."

Germanic mythology

Further information: Gerichtslinde

The tilia was also a highly symbolic and hallowed tree in Germanic mythology. In Germany e.g., there are over 850 place names that can be traced back to it: For pre-Christian Germans it was an object of worship since the lime-tree was associated with Freyja, the guardian of life and goddess of fortune, love and truth. Therefore her tree was considered a tree of peace and it often formed the central meeting place of many villages and rural communities. Furthermore, legend has it that it cannot be struck by lightning since Freya is the wife of Thor, a major god of the Germanic pantheon. Consequently, it was assumed that the lime-tree possessed some protective power against evil and catastrophe, and even after the Christianization of Germany the lime-tree’s positive connotation continued: Motherly Freya was subsequently replaced by the Mother of God, so that many trees were rededicated to St. Mary (Marienlinde). Accordingly, limewood was used as a superstitious precaution against witchcraft or Satan and the tree kept its prominent role as a benign guardian of the village.

Originally, local communities not only assembled to celebrate and dance under the lime-tree and the aegis of Freya, but also to hold their judicial thing meetings there in order to restore justice and peace. It was believed that the tree would help unearth the truth and that no one was able to lie maliciously without attracting Freya’s rage. Thus the tree became associated with jurisprudence even after Christianization and verdicts in rural Germany were frequently returned sub tilia (under the lime-tree) until the Age of Enlightenment.

Greek mythology

Homer, Horace, Virgil, and Pliny mention the lime-tree and mention its virtues. As Ovid tells the old story of Baucis and Philemon, she was changed into a linden and he into an oak when the time came for them both to die.

Herodotus says: ^[1]

Romantic symbol

As Freya was also the goddess of love her tree was always considered a romantic symbol, even to the present day. For instance, a very famous mediaeval love poem by Walther von der Vogelweide (c.1170-c.1230) starts with a reference to the lime-tree:

Under der linden an der heide, dâ unser zweier bette was, dâ mugt ir vinden schône beide gebrochen bluomen unde gras. vor dem wald in einem tal, tandaradei, schône sanc diu nahtegal.

Under the lime 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.

Linden-trees play a significant motif in a number of poems written by the most famous Romanian romantic poet Mihai Eminescu. An excerpt from his poem Mai am un singur dor (One Wish Alone Have I):

Pătrunză talanga Al serii rece vânt, Deasupră-mi teiul sfânt Să-şi scuture creanga.

While softly rings The evening's cool wind Above me the holy lime Shakes its branch. (translation: M.G.Jiva)

Romantic symbols in music

The trees have also become more famous from O-Zone's Dragostea Din Tei (Love From Linden Trees).

Vrei sa pleci dar nu ma nu ma iei, nu ma nu ma iei, nu ma nu ma nu ma iei. Chipul tau si Dragostea din tei mi-amintesc de ochii tai.

You want to leave, but you can't, you can't take me, you can't, you can't take me, you can't, you can't, you can't take me. The image of your face and the love from linden trees remind me of your eyes.''

Other Literary References

The lime tree is an important symbol in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison," (written 1797; first published 1800).

The linden tree is featured as a symbol of supernatural dread in, Hannah Crafts, The Bondwoman's Narrative.

A poem from Wilhelm Müller's cycle of poems, Winterreise, is called "Der Lindenbaum." The cycle was later set to music by Franz Schubert.

See also

• Dragostea Din Tei - a Romanian/Moldovan song referring to lindens
• Unter den Linden - an avenue of lindens in Berlin, Germany

References