Buds of linden, June 5, 2018
It’s mid June and here in Cardiff the weather is living up to its summer promise, with many scorching-hot sunny days. But there is still a cooling north-easterly wind most days as I walk beside the Wharf (old Bute East Dock). And all at once the linden tree (Tilia) I am following is full of green flower buds.
Actually I thought they were the fruits, but as this tree seems to be running later than others I have seen, the flower buds have yet to open and the fruits will come later. I hope so, or else I have completely missed them!
To paraphrase Wikipedia, the small yellow-green hermaphrodite flowers of Tilia cordata are produced in clusters of five to 11 in early summer with a leafy yellow-green subtending bract and have a rich, heavy scent; the trees are much visited by bees to the erect flowers, held above the bract; this arrangement is different from that of the common lime Tilia × europaea where the flowers are held beneath the bract. (more…)
