Botany: linden (basswood) tree

Self-tutoring about trees: the tutor mentions a linden he’s noticed.

In the northwest corner of a local sports field is a hardwood tree, perhaps 70 ft tall. Its trunk is oval; its max diameter might be 18 inches. The bark is gray.

The leaves are heart-shaped, around 5 inches long and wide. Round nutlike green fruits hang underneath, each bunch accompanied by a single oval leaf, completely unlike the tree’s typical leaves.

The tree, from my sources, is either an American basswood or a European linden. Based on leaf size, I suspect it’s the American basswood, which is also of the linden family.

Neither of those trees is native here.

When I was a kid, we had a new linden tree planted in our front yard on the base. I’ve always wondered when I’d encounter another:)

Source:

forestry.ohiodnr.gov

Brockman, Frank C. et al. Trees of North America. New York: Golden Press, 1968.

Little, Elbert L. and Susan Rayfield and Olivia Buehl. The Audobon Society Field Guide to North American Trees. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1986.