A tree of the largest size, 100 ft or more high, with a straight, clean trunk, and a shapely, rounded head of branches; young shoots downy. Leaves roundish heart-shaped, occasionally oblique, 2 to 5 in. long, nearly or quite as much wide; shortly taper-pointed, sharply toothed, dark green and slightly downy above, densely so beneath, especially on the veins and midrib; stalk downy, 1⁄2 to 2 in. long. Flowers yellowish white, produced in late June, usually in three- but sometimes six-flowered, lax, pendent cymes, 3 or 4 in. long. Floral bracts 2 to 5 in. long, 1⁄2 to 11⁄4 in. wide, downy, especially on the midrib and back. Fruits somewhat pear-shaped, 1⁄3 to 1⁄2 in. long, prominently five-ribbed, downy.
A native of Europe, extending into S.W. Asia, but less common in that region than the related T. caucasica. In Britain it is probably indigenous in a few localities such as the Wye Valley, around Sheffield, and near Richmond in Swaledale (see further in the article by C. D. Piggott in Journ. Ecol., Vol. 57 (1969), pp. 491-504). In Central Europe it usually occurs at somewhat higher altitudes than T. cordata, preferring cooler and moister conditions. Although both live to a great age, most of the ancient trees in Germany and Central Europe are said to be T. platyphyllos.
Although not so commonly grown in England as T. × europaea, it is a more shapely and cleaner grown tree. The trunk does not produce the numerous swollen burrs covered with adventitious buds that are so characteristic of T. × europaea. From T. × europaea and T. cordata this lime is easily distinguished by its larger downy leaves, the downy shoots, and the larger five-ribbed fruit.
T. platyphyllos is a variable species, especially in the degree of hairiness of the young twigs and leaves. In the more northern race, which extends into southwestern European Russia, the twigs, petioles and leaf-undersides are densely to moderately downy, and there may be some down on the upper surface of the leaves. This is subsp. cordifolia (Bess.) Schneid. (T. cordifolia Bess.). The typical subspecies (subsp. platyphyllos), with a more southern distribution, is only sparsely hairy, and the hairs on the undersides of the leaves are mostly confined to the main veins. The subsp. pseudorubra Schneid. is almost wholly glabrous; this is mainly confined to southeastern Europe, but extends into the southern Alps. But in horticultural nomenclature it is simpler to ignore these geographical variations, and place all cultivars and minor variants directly under the name T. platyphyllos.
cv. ‘Aurea’. – Twigs golden-yellow in winter (T. europaea var. aurea Loud.; T. p. aurantia Hort.). An example at Kew measures 71 × 6 ft (1967). There may be more than one clone under this name.
In ‘Handsworth’, of which there is a small tree at Kew, the twigs are greenish yellow in winter.
cv. ‘Compacta’. – An interesting variation of rounded, compact habit. The original plant in the Wageningen Arboretum in Holland is only about 15 ft high after some forty years of growth.
cv. ‘Fastigiata’. – Branches steeply ascending (T. p. f. fastigiata Rehd.; T. p. pyramidalis Hort., not Schneid.).
cv. ‘Laciniata’. – Leaves mostly smaller than normal, jaggedly and irregularly toothed, often with deep sinuses near the base; some are almost of the normal length, but very narrow and incised (T. europaea var. laciniata Loud.).
This seems to be the commonest and oldest of the cut-leaved clones. It flowers abundantly, often rather earlier than the normal form. The largest examples are mostly 50 to 60 ft high and 5 to 53⁄4 ft in girth. It was mentioned in previous editions as T. p. var. asplenifolia, but there seems to be little doubt that it is the form first named var. laciniata by Loudon and figured in Arb. Frut. Brit. (1838), Vol. V, p. 21.
Two other cut-leaved forms have been distributed commercially. In‘Filicifolia Nova’ the leaves are narrowly triangular, often irregularly lobed as in ‘Laciniata’ but not so deeply; they are also more glabrous. In the other, sent out by Baumann’s nursery, probably as asplenifolia nova, the leaves were very narrow and deeply cut. But some trees in gardens may be seedlings of ‘Laciniata’.
var. obliqua (Host) Simonkai T. obliqua Host – Leaves obliquely truncate at the base, larger than normal, almost glabrous beneath. Floral bracts stalked. This is said to be common in gardens in Central Europe, and may be a cultivar.
cv. ‘Rubra’ (‘Corallina’). Red-twigged Lime. – Twigs red in winter. Leaves downy beneath (T. europaea var. rubra West.; T. e. var. corallina Ait.; T. rubra DC., in Cat. Pl. Monspel. (1813), but not T. rubra DC. in Prodr. (1825); T. mollis var. corallina Spach).
Red-twigged forms of T. platyphyllos occur in the wild, probably throughout the range of the species, but the cultivated plants are propagated by grafting or layering, and may represent an old nursery clone. Examples are: Garnston Manor, Watford, 70 × 103⁄4 ft (1974); Linton Park, Kent, 80 × 9 ft (1972); Melbury, Dorset, 72 × 101⁄2 ft (1971).
cv. ‘Tortuosa’. – Young branches curiously curled and twisted, often forming loops. This mutation was found in a batch of five hundred layers; the original plant was given to the Royal Horticultural Society and propagated by grafting at Kew, where plants were grown for some years (T. p. var. tortuosa Bean).
var. vitifolia (Host) Simonkai T. vitifolia Host – Leaves obscurely three-lobed, rather like those of Acer rufinerve in shape, sparsely hairy beneath. This is apparently little known in the wild and may be a cultivar. There is an example at Kew measuring 54 × 41⁄2 ft (1967).
T. caucasica Rupr. T. rubra DC. in Prodromus (1825), at least in part, not DC. in Cat. Hort. Monspel. (1813); T. rubra subsp. caucasica (Rupr.) V. Engler; T. dasystyla sens. Rehd., in part, not Stev. – Very near to the southeastern race of T. platyphyllos (subsp. pseudo-rubra), which it resembles in having the leaves glabrous beneath except for brownish axillary tufts, but differing in their marginal teeth, which have slender tips which are as long as, or even longer than the body of the tooth. The leaves are glossy above, rounded to slightly cordate at the base, about as wide as long. Native of the Caucasus, the Crimea and the mountains of northern Anatolia. It attains a height of over 100 ft in the wild.
The true species was distributed by Späth’s nursery and is probably in cultivation as T. dasystyla, which indeed would be the correct name for the species if T. dasystyla Stev. (1831) and T. caucasica (1869) were considered to be conspecific.
Closely allied to T. caucasica are: T. begoniifolia Stev. from the Caspian forests of Iran and bordering parts of Russia, with leaves usually longer than wide, and differently shaped fruits; and T. multiflora Ledeb., from western Transcaucasia, chiefly differing in the blunter teeth of the leaves and the many-flowered inflorescence (with up to twenty flowers). Plants distributed as T. begoniifolia in the last century were probably not true, but this species is now in cultivation in the Hillier Arboretum near Romsey. It was introduced by Roy Lancaster from Iran in 1972. There is no record of T. multiflora in cultivation.
T. dasystyla Stev. T. rubra var. dasystyla (Stev.) Schneid.; T. rubra subsp. caucasica var. typica f. dasystyla (Stev.) V. Engler – An endemic of the Crimea, mainly in the southern part. The main point of difference from T. caucasica is that the style is densely hairy, almost woolly. There are other differences however; the leaves are downy beneath, at least on the main veins, and the tips of the leaf-teeth are shorter. It is uncertain if the true species is in cultivation. The tree originally distributed as T. dasystyla is T. × euchlora and others are probably T. caucasica.