A tree 30 to 80 ft high in the wild, the branchlets at first stellately downy, ultimately glabrous. Leaves obliquely and broadly ovate, heart-shaped or cut off straight at the base, shortly taper-pointed, 2 to 5 in. long, 11⁄2 to 3 in. wide, the margin set with bristle-like teeth 1⁄10 in. long, the midrib and veins downy above, the whole under-surface covered with dull brownish stellate down; there are tufts of down in the vein-axils; stalks 1 to 11⁄2 in. long. Flowers whitish, numerous (twenty or more), on cymes 4 to 6 in. long; floral bracts of similar length, 1⁄2 to 3⁄4 in. wide, stellately downy, especially behind.
Native of Central China; discovered by Henry in western Hupeh. According to Wilson it is an uncommon species in the wild, but grows taller than any other lime of Central and Western China. The trees he saw in 1907 in western Hupeh, at 4,000 ft, were up to 80 ft high and 28 ft in girth. As a general rule, trees from that part of China grow well in this country, but T. henryana is among the exceptions. Wilson is believed to have introduced it in 1901 for Messrs Veitch, but there is no record of a plant from this sending. The largest known examples in the British Isles, at Birr Castle in Eire, were raised by Lord Rosse from seeds received from the Lushan Botanic Garden in 1938; they measure 26 × 21⁄2 ft and 33 × 2 ft (1975). The small plant at Kew was raised from seeds received from Nanking in 1934.
T. henryana flowers in late summer or early autumn. It is remarkable for the almost hair-like teeth of its leaves.