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Tilia 'Moltkei'

Modern name

Tilia 'Moltkei'

Synonyms

T. × moltkei Späth ex Schneid.

A vigorous tree to about 80 ft high, resembling T. americana in its glabrous branchlets and buds, and in the shape, size and toothing of the leaves, but differing in the undersurface of the leaves, which is sparsely coated with stellate down and lacks axillary tufts. It was put into commerce by the German nurseryman Späth in 1883, and named by him in honour of the famous General Moltke, who planted a tree outside Späth’s house in 1888, next to a specimen of T. tomentosa, planted by Bismarck. Späth considered it to be a hybrid between T. americana and T. tomentosa, but the rather pendulous habit suggests that the second parent was T. ‘Petiolaris’, to which it is inferior as an ornamental. It is no longer much planted either here or in Germany.

Recorded examples are: Kew, 66 × 6 ft (1971); Stratfield Saye, Hants, 77 × 8 ft (1968); National Botanic Garden, Glasnevin, pl. 1888, 72 × 6 ft (1975).

T. ‘Spectabilis’. – Similar to the preceding, but with some stellate pubescence on the branchlets and buds. Distributed by Dieck of Zöschen and described in 1893. (T. × spectabilis Dipp.; not Host; T. blechiana Dieck ex Dipp.). This is probably a hybrid between T. americana and T. tomentosa. Similar trees, of unknown origin, were in commerce several decades before 1893, and there is an example at Kew, received from Booth of Hamburg in 1872, which measures 74 × 634 ft (1974).



From the Supplement (Vol. V)

Two of the three specimens at Kew measure 70 × 612 ft (1982) and 80 × 9 ft (1985). The specimen of ‘Spectabilis’, in the Lime Collection near the Victoria Gate, pl. 1872, is 80 × 534 ft (1979) and the only other large specimen recorded is at Talbot Manor, Norfolk, pl. 1948, 50 × 514 ft (1978).

Genus

Tilia

Other species in the genus