Japanese Lime Tree

Lovely, elegant, charming, sophisticated, graceful, petite, and well-perfumed: altogether a class act. If lindens were stars of Turner Cl...Read Moreassic Movies, Tilia kiusiana would be Audrey Hepburn.

It's smaller than other lindens in all its parts, with a shorter stature and smaller leaves and flowers. Even its seeds and their bract/parachutes are diminutive. It has a pleasing pale creamy pink exfoliating bark that reminds me of a river birch.

The effect is, well, dainty and refined. The French would call it "mignon".

The sweetly fragrant flowers bloom in August and September.

It's slow growing and reaches a maximum of 20-30' tall. The habit is upright, single-trunked, and symmetrical, well branched all the way to the ground. Limbed up to 8', this would make a great tree for small gardens.

Unlike the common linden, it does not sucker from the base. Nor does it share the aphid/honeydew/black mold problem that makes T. cordifolia troublesome as an urban street tree.

The common name is Kyushu linden or Kyushu lime tree. Japanese lime tree (Tilia japonica) is a different species.