Large-leaved Lime

There are three species of lime tree in Britain, but only the Large-leaved Lime is found in the cemetery.
Dedicated to: 
In memory of Tom Saxby, 1915–2002. Keeper of the records of the graves and keen supporter of the cemetery.

Species introduction

At a glance
Latin name: 
Tilia platyphyllos
Family: 
Limes
Family Latin name: 
TILIACEAE
Category: 
Flowering Plants

Species description

Species description

Limewood is one of the softest of our native hardwoods, has good grain and generally even texture, and is favoured by woodcarvers, and for making pencils. The extraordinary wood carving in Petworth House's Carved Room was executed in the 1690s by Grinling Gibbons using wood from lime trees. The bast fibres are used to make garden ties and plaited articles. 

The yellowish fragrant flowers appear in July. 

Most medicinal research has focused on the Small-leaved Lime (Tilia cordata), although other species are also used medicinally and somewhat interchangeably. The dried flowers are mildly sweet and sticky, and the fruit is somewhat sweet and mucilaginous. Young leaves, especially unwashed and still coated with aphid honeydew, are apparently excellent as a sandwich filling. Limeflower tea has a pleasing taste, due to the aromatic volatile oil found in the flowers.

It is this tea (in the form of what the French know as un infusion/une tisane au tilleul) that Marcel Proust's narrator of À la recherche du temps perdu/In Search of Lost Time dipped a madeleine cake, only to trigger an involuntary memory in what is considered to be one of literature's most moving passages. (You don't need to read all 12 volumes of Proust's magnus opus before encountering the passage; it occurs in the first 60 pages of Volume 1!)

The flowers, leaves, wood, and charcoal (obtained from the wood) are used for medicinal purposes. Active ingredients in the Tilia flowers include flavonoids (which act as antioxidants), volatile oils, and mucilaginous constituents (which soothe and reduce inflammation). The plant also contains tannins that can act as astringents. Tilia flowers are used medicinally for colds, cough, fever, infections, inflammation, high blood pressure, headache (particularly migraine), and as a diuretic (increases urine production), antispasmodic (reduces smooth muscle spasm along the digestive tract), and sedative. 

New evidence shows that the flowers may be hepatoprotective. The flowers were added to baths to quell hysteria, and steeped as a tea to relieve anxiety-related indigestion, irregular heartbeat, and vomiting. The leaves are used to promote sweating to reduce fevers. The wood is used for liver and gallbladder disorders and cellulitis (inflammation of the skin and surrounding soft tissue). Lime wood burned to charcoal is ingested to treat intestinal disorders and used topically to treat edema or infection such as cellulitis or ulcers of the lower leg. 

Large-leaved Lime trees support a wide range of insects. Various moths lay their eggs on the tree's leaves, thereby providing the emerging caterpillars with their favourite food. The tree's springtime flowers provide nectar for bees and other pollinators. Bees also feed on the honeydew (a sugary, sticky liquid) secreted by aphids and other scale insects that feed on the tree's sap. Hoverflies and ladybirds are attracted by these aphids, which they consume in huge numbers. Stand under the Large-leaved Lime tree in the north-west section of the Cemetery between April and October, and you will practically be guaranteed to see hoverflies there!

Britain's lime trees

The large-leaved Lime is Britain's rarest lime tree. There are also the Small-leaved Lime (Tilia cordata) and the Common Lime (Tilia x europaea/vulgaris). The latter is a hybrid between the Large-leaved and the Small-leaved. Here are the essential differences between the three:

 

Large-leaved Lime

(Tilia platyphyllos)

Small-leaved Lime

(Tillia cordata)

Common Lime

(Tilia x europaea/vulgaris)

Flowers 1-5 per inflorescence (single stem cluster), hanging below leaves 4-10 per inflorescence, held above leaves 4-10 per inflorescence, hanging below leaves
Fruit shape oval with pointed tips, 5-ribbed when mature small with pointed tips, not ribbed or obscurely ribbed round-oval without pointed tips, slightly ribbed
Twigs green-grey, virtually hairless reddish brown in shade, becoming shiny in sunlight brown, becoming red in sunlight
Leaves softly hairy underneath with hairy stems, 6-12 cm across, lateral veins prominent hairless but with rust-coloured tufts on the underside of the vein joints, 35-70 cm across, lateral veins obscure white-cream hairs in the base of the vein on the underside, 6-10 cm across
Bark smooth, developing flaky plates over time grey-brown and smooth, developing flaky plates over time pale grey-brown, irregularly ridged, lateral veins prominent

These characteristics lead to a clear identification that Heene Cemetery's single lime tree is a rare Large-leaved Lime.

Species photographs

Larger photograph(s) (click to magnify)
Large-leaved Lime trees are nationally rare or scarce and are on the Sussex Rare Species Inventory.
There are three species of lime tree in Britain, but only the Large-leaved Lime is found in the cemetery.
The flowers of the Large-leaved Lime tree were added to baths to quell hysteria.
Lime nail gall mites are microscopic animals that feed on the foliage of lime trees. The mites feed by sucking sap.
Although the lime nail gall mite disfigures the foliage it has little or no effect on tree growth.

Details

Species family information

The only familiar members of this family in this country are the three species of lime tree, only one of which is found in the cemetery.

Category information

Nucleic multicellular photosynthetic organisms lived in freshwater communities on land as long ago as a thousand million years, and their terrestrial descendants are known from the late Pre-Cambrian 850 million years ago. Embryophyte land plants are known from the mid Ordovician, and land plant structures such as roots and leaves are recognisable in mid Devonian fossils. Seeds seem to have evolved by the late Devonian. The Embryophytes are green land plants that form the bulk of the Earth’s vegetation. They have specialised reproductive organs and nurture the young embryo sporophyte. Most obtain their energy by photosynthesis, using sunlight to synthesise food from Carbon Dioxide and Water.

The earliest known plant group is the Archaeplastida, which were autotrophic. Listing just the surviving descendants, which evolved in turn, we have the Red Algae, the Chlorophyte Green Algae, the Charophyte Green Algae, and then the Embryophyta or land plants. The earliest embryophytes were the Liverworts, followed by the Hornworts, and the Mosses. Then we have the Vascular Plants, the Lycophytes and Ferns, followed by the Spermatophytes or seed plants, the Gnetophytes, Conifers, Ginkgos, and Cycads, and finally the Magnoliophyta (Angiosperms) or flowering plants.

Protections

Legal protections and status
Nationally rare or scarce (formerly Nationally Notable)
Sussex Rare Species Inventory