Tilia heterophylla

Tilia heterophylla
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Magnoliophyta
Class:	Magnoliopsida
Order:	Malvales
Family:	Malvaceae
Genus:	Tilia
Species:	T. heterophylla
Binomial name
Tilia heterophylla Vent.

Tilia heterophylla or White Basswood, is a species of basswood common to mesic forests in Eastern North America. The main distinguishing characteristic is the presence of a dense pelt (tomentum) of white hairs on the underside of the leaves. Some consider this tree to be a subspecies of Tilia americana.

Description

Tilia heterophylla, the White Basswood, is a mountain species ranging along the Alleghanies from Pennsylvania to Tennessee. At its best it reaches the height of sixty feet.

The finely toothed leaves are large, very unilateral, six or seven inches long, four or five broad. Its surface is light green or smooth above, silvery downy beneath.

Each cluster bears 10 to 24 flowers. These are larger than those of T. americana.

The fruit bract is pointed at the base with the nutlike fruit spherical and downy.

The tree is not generally known, but Professor Charles Sargent, in The Silva of North America, says of it: "Few North American trees surpass it in beauty of foliage; and the contrast made by the snowy whiteness of the under surface of its ample leaves as they flutter on their slender stems, with the dark green of the Hemlocks and Laurels on the banks of rapid mountain streams produces one of the most beautiful effects which can be seen in the splendid forests which clothe the valleys of the southern Appalachian Mountains."

External links

• Tilia heterophylla - part of the Plants For A Future database.
• USDA profile - at http://plants.usda.gov.
• Ohio trees