Tree of the month: July 2023 - The Lime Tree

The Lime (or Linden) Tree is a fast growing tree that can reach 40 metres in height. There are several species found in Britain, but the most commonly planted is the Common Lime, a natural hybrid between the small and largeleaved Lime. The Common Lime is tolerant of many different growing conditions which has led to it being planted widely in parks, churchyards, country estates and along urban streets. Many Sheffield roads, including several local to Parkwood Springs, are lined with Lime trees. The bark is ridged and mature trees will typically have many shoots and burrs near the base of their trunks. The Lime is an elegant tree, even in winter, with its downward-sweeping branches.

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In late June and July many clusters of honeyscented flowers develop and fill the air with their elusive scent. The flowers hang below pale green bracts which stay on the tree long after the flowers have faded, as the seeds develop.

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Wildlife value of the Lime Tree: Many moth caterpillars feed on the leaves of the Lime tree but the most spectacular is the Lime Hawkmoth. This large, beautiful moth has no mouth parts since it is one of the moths that don’t actually feed in their adult form. They only live for 2-3 days, long enough to mate and lay eggs for the next generation. Honey made from Lime flowers is much valued but their attractiveness to Bumblebees is a cause for long-term research. For many years there have been occasional reports of Bumblebees, in big numbers, being found dead underneath Lime trees, especially the less common Silver Lime. The theory being researched by Kew gardens is that the heady clusters of Lime flowers contain caffeine or some chemical that lures Bumblebees back and back over long distances to feed on the pollen and nectar. The nectar is of low quality so it is possible that the chemical structure of the scent enhances memory, deflecting the bees from richer nectar sources and these long, repeated journeys exhaust the bumblebees.

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Lime flowers are hermaphrodite, comprising both male and female elements, and are pollinated by a range of insects. The tannin in Lime leaves attracts aphids in large numbers. The aphids suck on the sap and excrete a sticky honeydew substance which is ‘farmed’ by ants. Bacteria grow on the honeydew and the result can be a hard-to-remove sooty, sticky substance falling on cars and surfaces under the trees.

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Uses of leaves and flowers: The young, fresh leaves can be used in salads and the sap was used in medieval times to sweeten drinks.

The flowers are frequently used to make teas, sold as Linden Tea, and as well as a refreshing drink it is thought to aid digestion. Herbally it has been used to treat coughs, colds and infections. The flowers are used to make perfumes.

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Uses of Lime wood: The light-weight, fine-grained timber is highly valued by a range of wood-workers. Puppet and model-makers often use Lime wood, and its acoustic qualities have led to it being used for drum-shells, guitars, recorders and piano-keys. It is also used to make blinds, and the early Germanic peoples used it for their shields. In the Orthodox Christian world it was used for the panels of Icon-paintings. Lime also yields a fine charcoal.

Lime wood is particularly suitable for intricate carving. One of the most remarkable exponents of Lime-wood carving is the famous Anglo-Dutch Grinling Gibbons (1648-1721). A whole room of his extraordinary carvings can be seen in Petworth House, West Sussex. Important pieces are in the in the V and A and other national collections.

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Uses of Lime tree bark: Bast is the common name for fibres made from the inner bark of the Lime (and some other plants). The bark is peeled off the tree, and soaked in water for several weeks before the inner fibres, or ‘bast’, are separated out, softened and prepared. The Lime bast has been used for millennia to make a range of products from fishing nets, baskets, shoes and ropes, for paper and material for clothing. The Ainu, indigenous people of Japan, and the people of Bronze Age Britain are among those known to have favoured bast for clothing.

Local avenues of Lime: There is a famous avenue of Lime trees at Wentworth Castle but it was the second-longest Lime Avenue in the UK, along the Rivelin Valley in Sheffield, that drew the headlines as part of the Sheffield Tree Action Group’s campaign against the City Council’s street-tree felling programme. 31 of the 700 trees in the Avenue were due to be felled, many of them in good health. Eventually, after thousands of street trees were felled, STAG was successful in its city-wide campaign.

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The Lime tree in mythology: There is a myth that it is impossible to tell a lie under a Lime tree, which probably derives from its long association as a symbol of justice. In Germanic culture the Lime, or Linden as it is known in Europe, is associated with justice and peace. In rural Germany verdicts for small misdemeanours were decided ‘sub tilia’- ‘under the lime tree’.

In many Eastern European countries the Lime tree is called the Holy Tree, and some villages in Poland are named Swieta Lipka, or Holy Lime. It is the national emblem of several countries, including the Czech Republic.

The Greeks referred to the Lime or Linden tree as a tree of virtue. At the end of her life Philemon, one of the pious couple Baucis and Philemon, was changed into a Lime tree and Baucis into an oak. The legend goes that the couple welcomed and fed Zeus and Hermes when they were disguised as travellers. For their kindness they were honoured by being changed into trees, twined together forever in death.

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The Lime Tree in the arts:
Shakespeare also knew the Lime as the Line tree. In the Tempest:
Prospero asks “How fares the King and his followers?”
Ariel, the sprite replies “Confined together … all prisoner’s sir,
In the Line-grove which weatherfends your cell.
They cannot budge till your release”

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The use of Lime wood, or Basswood as it is known in America, is referenced in the poem Hiawatha, by Longfellow, 1855:
“Sumptuous was the feast Nokomis
Made at Hiawatha’s wedding
All the bowls were made of basswood
White and polished very smooth”.
Hiawatha, on whom the poem is based and about whom there are many legends, was probably a real person, a member of the Native American Onondaga tribe, and thought to date from around the 1100’s.