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Tilia tomentosa
Also called Silver Linden, White linden, Hungarian Silver Linden
Silver lime is a large deciduous shade tree from southeastern Europe and southwestern Asia, valued for its white-felted leaf undersides and fragrant summer flowers. Its key strength is tolerance of urban conditions, making it a common street and park tree.
Tilia tomentosa, known as silver linden in the US and silver lime in the UK, is a species of flowering plant in the family Malvaceae, native to southeastern Europe and southwestern Asia, from Romania and the Balkans east to western Turkey, occurring at moderate altitudes.
It is widely grown as an ornamental tree throughout Europe. The cultivar 'Brabant' has a strong central stem and a symmetrical conic crown. The cultivar 'Petiolaris' (pendent or weeping silver lime) differs in longer leaf petioles 4–8 cm long and drooping leaves; it is of unknown origin and usually sterile, and may be a hybrid with another Tilia species. It is very tolerant of urban pollution, soil compaction, heat, and drought, and would be a good street tree in urban areas. In cultivation in the UK, T. tomentosa 'Petiolaris' has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.
An infusion made from the flowers of T. tomentosa is antispasmodic, diaphoretic and sedative. This may be attributable to the presence of pharmacologically active ligands of benzodiazepine receptor.
American basswood · Amur Linden · Ching's Lime · Small-leaved Lime · Crimean Lime · Japanese lime · Kyushu Lime · Manchurian Lime · Mongolian Lime · Oliver's Lime · Large-leaved Lime · Lime
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Tilia tomentosa by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
