The tiny, pea-like fruit hangs attached to a ribbon-like, greenish-yellow bract whose apparent purpose is to launch the ripened seed clusters just a little beyond the parent tree. The leaves of all the Tilia species are heart-shaped, and most are asymmetrical. In summer, these are profusely clothed with large leaves and the result is a dense head of abundant foliage. The Tilia 's sturdy trunk stands like a pillar and the branches divide and subdivide into numerous ramifications on which the twigs are fine and thick. Latin tilia is cognate to Greek ПЂП„ОµО»Обѕ±, ptelea, ' elm tree', П„О№О»ОЇО±О№, tiliai, ' black poplar' ( Hes.), ultimately from a Proto-Indo-European word *ptel-eiМЇДЃ with a meaning of 'broad' (feminine) perhaps 'broad-leaved' or similar. Another common name used in North America is basswood, derived from bast, the name for the inner bark (see Uses, below). Neither the name nor the tree is related to the citrus fruit called ' lime' ( Citrus aurantifolia, family Rutaceae). 'Linden' was originally the adjective, 'made from linwood or lime-wood' (equivalent to 'wooden') from the late 16th century, 'linden' was also used as a noun, probably influenced by translations of German romance, as an adoption of Linden, the plural of German Linde. Within Germanic languages, English 'lithe', German lind 'lenient, yielding' are from the same root. 'Lime' is an altered form of Middle English lind, in the 16th century also line, from Old English feminine lind or linde, Proto-Germanic *lindЕЌ, cognate to Latin lentus 'flexible' and Sanskrit latДЃ ' liana'. The genus is generally called 'lime' or 'linden' in Britain and 'linden', 'lime', or 'basswood' in North America. They are hermaphroditic, having perfect flowers with both male and female parts, pollinated by insects. As with elms, the exact number of species is uncertain, as many of the species can hybridise readily, both in the wild and in cultivation. Tilia species are mostly large, deciduous trees, reaching typically 20 to 40В m (65 to 130В ft) tall, with oblique-cordate leaves 6 to 20В cm ( 2 + 1вЃ„ 4 to 7 + 3вЃ„ 4В in) across. Under the Cronquist classification system, this genus was placed in the family Tiliaceae, but genetic research summarised by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group has resulted in the incorporation of this genus, and of most of the previous family, into the Malvaceae. The genus occurs in Europe and eastern North America, but the greatest species diversity is found in Asia. In Britain and Ireland they are commonly called lime trees, although they are not related to the tree that produces the citrus fruit lime.

The tree is known as linden for the European species, and basswood for North American species. Tilia is a genus of about 30 species of trees or bushes, native throughout most of the temperate Northern Hemisphere. Tilia tomentosa, cultivated at the Morton Arboretum near Chicago

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