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Small Leaved Lime (Tilia cordata)
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Natural History.
Lime has very distinctive heart-shaped leaves (hence "Cordata") with pretty red-coloured new buds in spring. The canopy usually gets extremely dense with very little light let through to the ground. The bark is smooth and grey and often the side branches are bent to the ground under the weight of the foliage. Lime has very attractive ivory coloured, hermaphroditic flowers in June/July. They are supposed to be heavily scented but I haven't noticed. The fruits are small nuts attached to a modified leaf, or "bract", which acts as a wing in their dispersal by wind.
Lime is mostly insect-pollinated (bees) and so is considerably under-represented in the pollen rain. Percentage frequencies on pollen diagrams therefore generally underestimate true Lime abundance in the early post-glacial period. Lime pollen is mainly confined to the warmest, middle substages of past interglacials. Lime probably formed an important, possibly dominant, constituent of the mixed, deciduous, undisturbed woodland in England.
Lime pollen frequencies decline from about 5,000BP onwards, consistent with a cooling climate after the mid-postglacial thermal optimum. Human influence was also an important factor: the pollen decline often being in association with pollen of arable weeds and bracken spores, indicators of increased forest clearance and farming activity.
Lime pollen values never recover their former levels and it has been thought that Lime was unable to regenerate after clearance. The selection of the best soils for arable farming would have particularly affected Lime and the subsequent removal of those soils by erosion would have prevented its return. However it is also likely that, because Lime is very easy to cut, intensive coppicing would have prevented trees from becoming mature enough to flower and, therefore, produce pollen.
Prehistoric and later human communities would have found Lime to be a valuable tree, providing leaf fodder, quality timber and stringy bark, or bast, useful for rope fibre. Lime is certainly an extremely soft wood when unseasoned or "Green". It would have been easily worked by the improved flint technology of the Neolithic period and certainly by Bronze-Age axes.
Cultivation.
Unfortunately, Lime carries it's breathing pores or "stomata" on the upper side of its leaves. This apparently suicidal strategy results in a high amount of water loss through transpiration in hot/windy weather. Most sensible tree species carry their stomata on the underside of the leaves to avoid this problem.
I managed to plant all of our Lime on the most sunny, exposed, free-draining part of our site. This is pretty much the exact oppostie of where it should be planted. In all but the dampest summers Lime planted in these conditions will suffer from drought.
The new buds on our Limes have not been affected by the late frosts experienced during spring 2008; so they are probably good bet for planting around frost pockets.
Propagation.
Seeds
No seeds produced yet.
Cuttings
Supposedly easy to produce from hardwood cuttings. I may have to try this if we get too many dry summers.
Planting & Aftercare.
Lime must be planted in a moist, fertile soil (see Cultivation above). See our Planting & Aftercare page for general advice.
Coppicing.
Lime tends to have most of its dormant buds around the base of the trunk. In theory this should make it an ideal tree for coppicing; traditionally it was coppiced widely.
I have found that, although the early regrowth is weak and straggly, after a couple of years new stems will grow tall and straight: I find them useful as hedging stakes. Furthermore the tops of the stems branch out quite nicely to produce good quality peasticks.
On the downside, the heavy foliage creates a deep shade and tends to force the branches to droop. Thus creating ideal conditions for Cleavers to grow. It is very difficult to clear the cleavers, by pulling out or spraying, without damaging the leaves and branches.
The deep shade cast by Lime makes it an unsuitable partner for Hazel in intimate mixture.
Unlike Hazel, Lime is not susceptible to Vole damage at the base of the stems.
Timber Qualities.
Lime wood is "diffuse-porous". This means that, unlike Ash or Oak, the trees can come into leaf earlier in the spring because water is transported up through the Xylem in the annual growth rings from several previous years. It also has an "indeterminate growth" pattern and so can take advantage of good growing conditions to continue growing later in the summer.
All this means that Lime can produce a large amount of relatively dry (39% moisture at felling) and light wood (in weight and colour). I find it to be useful for hedging stakes, peasticks and kindling. I believe that it is one of the best materials for woodcarving (spoons, bowls, etc).