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| ## basswood {#basswood .Title-Header}                                 |
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| *Tilia americana* L.                                                  |
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| Plant Symbol = TIAM                                                   |
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Contributed by: USDA NRCS National Plant Data Center & the Biota of
North America Program

### ![](media/image2.jpeg){width="2.498611111111111in" height="3.7111111111111112in"}

### Alternate Names 

Linn, American linden, white basswood (var. *heterophylla*), American
basswood

### Uses

*Ethnobotanic*: Native Americans and settlers used the fibrous inner
bark (\"bast\") as a source of fiber for rope, mats, fish nets, and
baskets. Basswood is still valued for its soft, light, easily worked
wood, especially for turned items and hand carving. It once was the
material of choice for prosthetic limbs, but these are now made from
synthetics. Other uses have included boxes, toys, woodenware, drawing
boards, veneer, venetian blinds, excelsior, and pulp.

Native Americans used fresh basswood sap, which contains moderate
amounts of sugar, as a watery drink or boiled it into syrup. They also
ate young basswood leaves and used the cambium for soups and breads.
Various medicinal uses were made of leaf and bark extracts, and Iroquois
used freshly cut bark as an emergency bandage for wounds.

*Wildlife*: Basswood is good browse and buds are important for birds and
deer in winter. Fruits are eaten by birds and small mammals. The wood
decays easily and produces many cavities (especially in trees past 120
years of age), which are used by cavity-nesting animals (wood ducks,
pileated woodpeckers, other birds, and small mammals). Basswood is a
prolific nectar producer and pollination by honeybees results in a
choice grade of honey.

*Restoration*: Basswood is planted as a shade tree or ornamental. For
sites of smaller size or with compacted soils, other *Tilia* species may
be more suitable. Basswood is said to be a soil-enriching species,
bringing calcium and magnesium up from deep in the soil profile and
depositing it in leaf litter on the surface.

### Status

Please consult the PLANTS Web site and your State Department of Natural
Resources for this plant's current status, such as, state noxious status
and wetland indicator values.

### Description

*General*: Basswood family (Tiliaceae). Native, large deciduous trees,
the bark gray and furrowed with flat ridges. Leaves deciduous,
alternate, more or less unevenly heart-shaped or the base often nearly
truncate, petiolate, the blades 5-12.5 cm wide, thick and slightly
leathery, with shallowly toothed margins, glabrous on both sides or with
some pubescence on the lower surface. Flowers yellowish-white, 10-14 mm
broad, fragrant and nectar-bearing, in drooping, 6-20-flowered clusters
hanging on a stalk that diverges from near the center of an oblong,
leaflike and strongly veined bract 5-10 cm long. Fruits mostly globose,
8-10 mm broad, hard and dry, indehiscent. The common name is from
"bastwood," referring to use of the inner bark, the "bast," for rope,
baskets, etc.

*Variation within the species*:

North American basswoods have been separated into many species (usually
three or four) or treated as several varieties within only a single
species. "Given the inconstancy of most vegetative and reproductive
characters \[of North American basswood\], the ecophenic, ecotypic, and
seasonal variation in vestiture, and also the probability of
introgression," trichome morphology provides the best evidence for
recognizing the component taxa (see Hardin 1990).

a\. *Tilia americana* var. *americana*

synonym: *Tilia neglecta* Spach

b\. *Tilia americana* var. *heterophylla* (Vent.) Loud.

synonym: *Tilia heterophylla* Vent.

synonym: *Tilia michauxii* Nutt.

c\. *Tilia americana* var. *caroliniana* (P. Mill.) Castigl.

synonym: *Tilia caroliniana* P. Mill.

synonym: *Tilia floridana* Small

The varieties of *Tilia americana* intergrade, but in their typical
forms are separated as follows:

a\. Leaves green beneath, sometimes glaucous, glabrous or sparsely hairy
with simple trichomes, sometimes with a few stellate ones. var.
*americana*

a\. Leaves pale or whitish beneath from the close tomentum of dense,
sessile-stellate trichomes, sometimes glabrate with age but remaining
stellate-pubescent at least along the major veins. (b)

b\. Young twigs tomentose or tomentose-hirsute; clusters of hairs on
leaves more than 0.5 mm wide.

var. *caroliniana*

b\. Young twigs glabrous; clusters of hairs on leaves less than 0.5 mm
wide. var. *heterophylla*

Trees identified as *Tilia neglecta* may be variants of var. *americana*
or they have been suggested to be introgressants between var.
*americana* and var. *heterophylla*. *Tilia floridana* is often
recognized as separate entity.

*Distribution*: *Tilia americana* is native to the Northern Deciduous
and Great Lakes - St. Lawrence forest regions of North America. It also
extends into grassland areas along river courses in Manitoba and the
mid-western United States, where it forms a component of riverine
gallery forests. In Canada, it is found from western New Brunswick into
southern and central Québec and Ontario, extending as far west as
north-western Ontario (along the U.S. border) and southern Manitoba. In
the United States, the species occurs as far south as the mountainous
regions of North Carolina, Tennessee, and northern Arkansas. The western
limit for the species is south-central Manitoba and North Dakota, and
along the Niobrara River in north-central Nebraska. For current
distribution, please consult the Plant Profile page for this species on
the PLANTS Web site.

### Adaptation 

Basswood occurs on rich, mesic sites (coves, lower slopes, river
bottoms), usually on deep, well-drained soils. It rarely occurs in pure
stands but is usually mixed with other forest species. Var. *americana*
is codominant in the sugar maple-basswood cover type and all varieties
are a common component of many other rich forests. Basswood occurs up to
1500 meters elevation in the southern Appalachian Mountains. Flowering
May-June (-July), usually 1-4 weeks after the leaves appear in mid-May.
Seeds are dispersed in October.

### Establishment

Seed production begins in basswoods about 15 years old (or as early as 8
years) and continues until the trees reach at least 100 years. Heavy
seed crops are irregular but good quantities of seed are produced at 1-
to 3-year intervals. Germination in the first year or two is often poor,
apparently because of an impermeable testa, but seeds may remain dormant
and viable in seed banks for up to three years. Few established
seedlings are found where the species forms a major component of the
canopy, apparently because seedling loss from herbivory by rabbits and
deer.

Seedlings can establish in as little as 25% of full sunlight, but heavy
shade limits subsequent growth and development. Seedling growth begins
slowly, but established young trees are fairly fast-growing. The typical
life of a basswood is about 100 years but some are known to live 140-200
years.

Basswood stump sprouts are often very common, and this may produce trees
growing in close clusters. Stump sprouts arise from the main stem after
its death, fire or logging injury, or aging, or even after disturbance
of the surrounding stand. Almost all basswoods 10 cm or less d.b.h. will
sprout from the stump, and sprouts have been obtained from basswoods
over 100 years old.

### Management

Basswood stump sprouts can be managed for saw timber. The number of
sprouts declines with the age and size of the cut trees. Since sprouts
originating at or below the ground line are more resistant to butt rot,
stumps should be cut very close to the ground or burned. Early thinning
of sprouts is needed to ensure good quality and rapid growth.

Over-browsing by high densities of white-tailed deer can result in
basswood seedling height growth reduction or even complete loss of
basswood from the stand. Mice and voles on oldfield sites may often
girdle the stems, and rabbits also feed heavily on seedlings and small
saplings. Seed predators include mice, squirrels, and chipmunks.
Basswood is easily decayed by fungi, and butt rot is an important factor
in loss of merchantable timber.

Basswood is most common in forests with long fire-free intervals,
because the thin bark and shallow roots are easily damaged by fire and
basal fire wounds increase susceptibility to butt rot. Prescribed fire
is not recommended for established stands of hardwoods in which basswood
occurs, as too-frequent fire intervals eliminate basswood or restrict it
to the most mesic sites. In some places, however, these trees are
encroaching onto former grasslands since fires have been suppressed.

### Cultivars, Improved and Selected Materials (and area of origin)

These plant materials are readily available from commercial sources.
Cultivars of *Tilia americana* have been selected for mature shape, fall
leaf color, and rust resistance. Contact your local Natural Resources
Conservation Service (formerly Soil Conservation Service) office for
more information. Look in the phone book under "United States
Government." The Natural Resources Conservation Service will be listed
under the subheading "Department of Agriculture."

### References

Brizicky, G.K. 1965. *The genera of Tiliaceae and Elaeocarpaceae in the
southeastern United States*. J. Arnold Arb. 46:286-307.

Crow, T.R. 1990. *Tilia americana*. Pp. 784-791, IN: R.M. Burns and B.H.
Honkala. *Silvics of North America*. *Volume 2.* *Hardwoods*. USDA,
Forest Service Agric. Handbook 654, Washington, D.C.
\<http://willow.ncfes.umn.edu/silvics_manual/Table_of_contents.htm\>

Hardin, J.W. 1990. *Variation patterns and recognition of varieties of
Tilia americana s.l*. Syst. Bot. 15:33-48.

Hickok, L.G. & J.C. Anway 1972. *A morphological and chemical analysis
of geographical variation in Tilia L. of eastern North America*.
Brittonia 24:2-8.

Jones, G.N. 1968. Taxonomy of American species of lindens (*Tilia*).
Illinois Biol. Monogr. No. 39. Univ. of Illinois Press, Urbana,
Illinois.

Peasley, N. 1996. *Critical silvics: American basswood \-- Tilia
americana*. Stand Interventions WWW Page.
\<www.unb.ca/web/standint/for3005/tilame.htm\>

Sullivan, J. 1994. *Tilia americana*. IN: W.C. Fischer (compiler). *The
fire effects information system* \[Data base\]. U.S. Dept. of Agric.,
Forest Service, Intermountain Research Station, Intermountain Fire
Sciences Laboratory. Missoula, Montana.
\<http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/tree/tilame/\>

Texas A&M University 2000*. Images of the Tiliaceae*. IN: *Vascular
plant image gallery*. Bioinformatics Working Group, College Station,
Texas. 21SEP2000. \<http://www.csdl.tamu.edu/FLORA/imaxxtil.htm\>

### Prepared By

*Guy Nesom*

Formerly BONAP, North Carolina Botanical Garden, University of North
Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina

### Species Coordinator

## *M. Kat Anderson*

USDA, NRCS, National Plant Data Center, c/o Plant Sciences Dept., Davis,
California

Edited: 19jun02 jsp; 04jun03 ahv; 060818 jsp

For more information about this and other plants, please contact your
local NRCS field office or Conservation District, and visit the PLANTS
Web site\<[http://plants.usda.gov](http://plants.usda.gov/)\> or the
Plant Materials Program Web site
\<[http://Plant-Materials.nrcs.usda.gov](http://Plant-Materials.nrcs.usda.gov/)\>

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