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Tilia caroliniana Mill.

Modern name

Tilia caroliniana Mill.

Synonyms

T. pubescens Ait.; T. americana var. pubescens (Ait.) Loud.; T. floridana Small; T. neglecta sens. Sarg., not Spach; T. ashei Bush; for other synonyms, see below

A tree up to 70 ft high in the wild; branchlets glabrous when mature. Leaves broadly ovate, short-acuminate at the apex, oblique and truncate or cordate at the base, 212 to 6 in. long, 2 to 434 in. wide, coarsely toothed, upper surface of the mature leaf glabrous, underside at first coated with a dense rusty or pale tomentum of stellate hairs which has been largely shed by flowering time, exposing the pale green or glaucous blade and the small axillary tufts; petioles slender, glabrous, usually shorter than the blade. Flowers pale yellow, slightly smaller than in T. americana, borne around midsummer, up to thirty or so in each inflorescence; pedicels stellate-downy. Sepals densely downy on the outside. Fruits felted, about 14 in. wide.

Native of the southeastern USA from North Carolina to central Florida, west through the Gulf States to the eastern parts of Texas, Okhlahoma, Texas and Missouri; introduced by Mark Catesby from the Carolinas in 1726. It is probably tender, and no sizeable trees have been recorded.

The following species, described by Sargent and featuring in the second edition of his Manual (1922) are included in T. caroliniana by G. N. Jones: T. cocksii, T. crenoserrata, T. georgiana, T. littoralis, T. nuda, T. phanera, T. texana, T. venulosa.


Genus

Tilia

Other species in the genus