Tilia platyphyllos Rubra - Lime

Tilia platyphyllos 'Rubra' is a variety of large-leaved lime tree, distinguished by young branches with a beautiful coral red colour, which are particularly decorative in winter. Like all lime trees, it offers a fragrant and honey-bearing flowering, valued in beekeeping but also in herbal medicine. Its large heart-shaped leaves that turn yellow in autumn are an additional asset, as is its beautiful grey bark that cracks with age. Slow-growing, it is satisfied with ordinary soil that remains moist.

Tilia platyphyllos belongs to the Malvaceae family. Quite rare in its natural state, it is native to Western Europe. Its growth is quite slow and its adult size can reach 35 m (114.8 ft) in height and 22 m (72.2 ft) in width under good conditions. In cultivation, it often reaches a height of 15 m (49.2 ft) with a spread of 10 m to 12 m (32.8 ft to 39.4 ft). This lime tree can live up to 1000 years. Also known as the Holland lime tree, it is a majestic deciduous tree, often planted as a shade tree in parks or in rows along avenues.

The 'Rubra' cultivar has a rather pyramidal shape when young, then it widens to form a wide dome-shaped canopy, thinner towards the top, surmounting an often massive trunk. The young branches are glossy, coloured from orange-red to bright coral red, glabrous or slightly hairy, punctuated by light elongated lenticels. They become more greyish over time. The leaves are entire, alternate, 8 cm to 15 cm (3.1 in to 5.9 in) long, heart-shaped at the base, and edged with small teeth. Reddish at budbreak, they become bright green in summer, showing a felted underside and yellowish hairs at the angle of the veins. In autumn, they turn golden yellow. The flowering is early for a lime tree, usually taking place in early summer, in June. The small flowers are pale-yellow with lime-green stamens. They are gathered in pendulous corymbs, in groups of 2 to 5, and attached to the branches by a long petiole. Remarkably fragrant and rich in nectar, they delight bees and herbal tea enthusiasts. They are followed by small globose fruits with 5 prominent ridges attached to a wing called a samara, which are initially green then grey in colour.

Plant 'Rubra' for posterity, in a garden large enough to accommodate it. It can be planted as a solitary shade tree or in rows along a very wide avenue. If you have enough space, place two specimens at the entrance of the garden to frame a beautiful gate. You can plant it with other trees or shrubs such as Persian ironwood or x Sycoparrotia (similar but with semi-evergreen foliage), the caramel tree, the winged euonymus (Euonymus alatus), in which you can let a climbing Virginia creeper grow to create a vibrant grove from September to November. Its flowers are an important source of nectar, valuable for those who raise bees. A Japanese medlar, flowering in October-November with a scent of bitter almond, a false acacia, as well as the Honey Tree (Tetradium daniellii), flowering from June to August, can also play this nourishing role if you have a beehive in your garden.

A legendary tree:

In Gaul, the lime tree was traditionally planted in the centre of the village. In Germany, it was under a lime tree that the Germanic peoples gathered to administer justice. Its use in herbal tea is still very common and it was once called "The Sorcerer's Tree" because of its medicinal properties attributed to powerful spirits housed in its bark. In the Canary Islands, there grows a venerable lime tree that the locals call "the weeping tree". It is said that in years of drought, it secretes enough fresh water to quench all the animals on the island.