Silver Lime - Tilia tomentosa

The leaves of Silver Lime are heart shaped and up to 10 cm long. The underside of the leaf is silvery white and with woolly (tomentose) hairs, and the leaf margins have sharply pointed teeth.  Pendent flower cymes. The cultivar Pendent Silver Lime (var. 'Petiolaris') is often planted, with long petioles and pendent branches. 

Other limes

The dense woolly hairs on the leaf underside are characteristic - large-leaved lime has hairy undersides to leaves, but these aren't dense and woolly.

Photo of the leaf undersides

Usually encountered as a planted tree in parks, cemeteries, churchyards, large gardens and on roadsides.

Flowering June to August.

Deciduous.

Widespread but little recorded in the wild in Britain.

It was not recorded in the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire.

Occasional as a planted tree