Tilia Michauxii Nutt.
Leaves ovate to ovate-oblong, acute or abruptly short-pointed at the broad apex, cordate, obliquely cordate, or rarely obliquely truncate at base, and coarsely serrate with apiculate teeth, pubescent above when they unfold with caducous fascicled hairs, and hoary-tomentose beneath, and at maturity thin, dark green and lustrous on the upper surface and coated below with short white or grayish white tomentum, 3½′—6′ long and 3½′—5′ wide, with a slender yellow midrib and primary veins usually without axillary tufts; petioles slender, sparingly villose when they first appear, soon glabrous, 1½′—2½′ in length. Flowers ⅓′ long, opening about the 1st of July, on slender puberulous pedicels ¼′ in length, in wide long-stemmed puberulous cymes; peduncle pubescent, becoming glabrous, the free portion 1¾′—2′ in length, its bract obovoid, rounded or acute at apex, 3½′—5′ long and ½′—1′ wide, decurrent to within ⅓′—¾′ of the base of the peduncle; sepals ovate, acuminate, ciliate on the margins, puberulous on the outer surface, tomentose on the inner surface, ¼′ long, shorter than the lanceolate acuminate petals; staminodia oblong-obovoid, rounded or emarginate at apex; style glabrous. Fruit ripening in September, subglobose, rusty-tomentose, ¼′—⅓′ in diameter.
A large tree with slender glabrous light red-brown branchlets. Winter-buds ovoid, acute, slightly flattened, red, about ¼′ in length. Bark of the trunk 1′ thick, deeply furrowed, reddish or grayish brown and covered with small thin scales.
Distribution. Pennsylvania, valley of the Susquehanna River (Lancaster County) to southern and western New York and through southern Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois to northeastern Missouri (near Ilasco, Ralls County), and southward through eastern Kentucky and Tennessee to northeastern Mississippi, and along the Appalachian Mountains to northern Georgia; southern Georgia (Dougherty and Decatur Counties), Dallas County, Alabama; southwestern Missouri (Eagle Rock, Barry County), and northwestern Arkansas (Eureka Springs, Carroll County, and Cotter, Marion County).
14. [Tilia monticola] Sarg.
Tilia heterophylla Sarg., in part, not Vent.
Leaves thin, gradually narrowed and acuminate at apex, ovate to oblong-ovate, very oblique and truncate or obliquely cordate at base, finely serrate with straight or incurved apiculate teeth, smooth, dark green and lustrous on the upper surface, thickly coated on the lower surface with hoary tomentum, 4′—7′ long and 3′—5′ wide; petioles slender, glabrous, 1½′—3′ in length. Flowers from the middle to the end of July, ⅖′—½′ long, on stout sparingly pubescent pedicels, in mostly 7—10-flowered thin-branched glabrous cymes; peduncle slender, glabrous, the free portion 1⅓′—1½′ in length, its bract gradually narrowed and cuneate or rounded at base, narrowed and rounded at apex, glabrous, 4′—5½′ long and ⅘′—1′ wide, decurrent to within 1/24′—⅛′ of the base of the peduncle; sepals ovate, acute, ciliate on the margins, covered on the outer surface with short pale pubescence and with silky white hairs on the inner surface; petals lanceolate, acuminate, twice longer than the sepals; staminodia oblong-lanceolate, rounded at the narrowed apex, as long or nearly as long as the petals; style clothed at the base with long white hairs. Fruit ripening in September, ovoid to ellipsoid, covered with pale rusty tomentum, ¼′—⅓′ long and about ¼′ in diameter.
A tree rarely exceeding 60° in height with a trunk 3°—4½° in diameter, slender branches forming a narrow rather pyramidal head, and stout glabrous branchlets usually bright red during their first year, becoming brown in their second season. Winter-buds compressed, ovoid, acute or rounded at apex, light red, covered with a glaucous bloom, ⅓′—½′ long. Bark of the trunk ⅗′ in thickness, deeply furrowed, the surface broken into small thin light brown scales.