Tilia platyphyllos (large-leaved lime)

Three Humps at Kew Gardens

David Nash - one of the UK’s most renowned sculptors – has been exhibiting his work at Kew Gardens since 9 June 2012.

From 13 October 2012 new sculptures, along with a number of drawings and short films, will be revealed as this major exhibition enters its next phase.

Kew’s Nash Conservatory will become home to a towering cork oak spire. A number of new, smaller sculptures and drawings have been created for display in Kew’s Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art. Further works have been installed in the unique and awe-inspiring surroundings of the Temperate House, Kew’s oldest surviving Victorian glasshouse.

Nash’s sculptures have been created using trees that have come to the end of their natural life. Tree species used include cork oak (Quercus suber), large-leaved lime (Tilia platyphyllos), white ash (Fraxinus americana), English oak (Quercus robur), red oak (Quercus rubra) and common holly (Ilex aquifolium).

Find out more about the exhibition

Tilia platyphyllos is native to central and southern Europe (including Great Britain, where it is possibly only native in woods on calcareous soils). It is also frequently planted in parks and gardens.

Fruits of Tilia platyphyllos (Image: Wolfgang Stuppy)

Large-leaved lime trees grow up to 35 m tall, with grey, finely fissured or ribbed bark. The young twigs are hairy. Leaves are usually 6–12 cm long and hairy on the underside, especially on the veins, and have a sharply toothed margin and heart-shaped base. Flowers are fragrant, borne in groups of 2–6, and bisexual, with five free sepals and five free, yellowish petals. Each flower has numerous stamens (male parts) that are more or less fused into five bundles. Each ovary has five compartments, each of which contains two ovules. Each flower has a single, hairless style (female part). The fruit is a strongly ribbed nut containing 1–3 seeds.

Large-leaved lime is cultivated as an ornamental in parks and gardens, although not as commonly as Tilia × europaea (common lime).

Lime wood is pale and soft and cuts cleanly; it has been used by wood-carvers since the Middle Ages. The wood is strong but prone to decay when damp, so has limited use as a building material.

Young leaves can be eaten as salad, and flowers have long been used in continental Europe to make a tea believed to have a calming effect. Lime flower tea is also used widely to ease coughs. Lime flowers are a rich source of nectar and attract bees, wasps, flies and moths. 

The Millennium Seed Bank Partnership aims to save plant life worldwide, focusing on plants under threat and those of most use in the future. Seeds are dried, packaged and stored at a sub-zero temperature in our seed bank vault.

Stored seeds of Tilia platyphyllos behave in an orthodox manner (meaning the seeds will survive the drying and freezing process), and two collections are held in Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank based at Wakehurst in West Sussex.

See Kew’s Seed Information Database for further information on Tilia platyphyllos seeds.

Many cultivated forms and cultivars have arisen from Tilia platyphyllos but few are available commercially. Tilia platyphyllos ‘Pendula’ has spreading branches and pendant (hanging) branchlets. Tilia platyphyllos ‘Rubra’ has reddish twigs in winter and has been given an Award of Garden Merit (AGM) by the Royal Horticultural Society.

Kew has one of the main collections of lime trees (Tilia sp.) in Europe. Large-leaved lime can be seen growing in the area between Kew’s Temperate House and Victoria Gate.

Pressed and dried specimens of Tilia platyphyllos are held in Kew’s Herbarium, where they are available to researchers by appointment. The details of some of these, including images, can be seen online in the Herbarium Catalogue.

Specimens of the wood and bark of large-leaved lime are held in Kew’s Economic Botany Collection in the Sir Joseph Banks Building, where they are available to researchers by appointment.

Search Kew’s science databases for more information on Tilia platyphyllos

Tilia platyphyllos ‘Rubra’ AGM – Royal Horticultural Society

Rhizotron & Xstrata Treetop Walkway – European lime