23rd November 2009
Lime Trees
The small-leaved lime tree has downward curving branches with a domed crown and when mature can be 22 metres high. The heart shaped leaves are alternate, up to six centimetres long, on short hairless stalks and they are dark green, shiny on top with orange tufts of hair on the undersides. The flowers are erect or spreading in clusters of seven or eight and are greenish yellow and they have a rich, sweet smelling fragrance. This is a rare tree in the Highlands with the only recent records being from around Inverness. The distribution is confusing because there are plenty of hybrid limes that have been planted throughout the Highlands and the small leaved lime may well have been unrecorded. Lime trees can live longer than any other tree in the Highlands, apart from the yew, and they can rate amongst the tallest of trees.
The strong smell of the flowers is irresistible to many insects especially bees and in the right conditions you can hear the bees up to 50 metres away. Unfortunately the flowers also attract very large numbers of the lime aphid and when this builds up in the summer the drips of the honeydew they produce are the bane of motorists and their cars. The large numbers of insects that includes, further south, the lime hawk moth, attract large numbers of insect eating birds. Deer and cattle love to browse on the lower leaves of the trees and often form a “browse line” as far up as the animals can reach so the bottom of the tree looks flat. We have also been attracted to limes as the soft and even grained timber has been widely used by wood carvers in various types of buildings. The strong fibre of the under bark, known as bast, was at one time stripped and used to make robes and nets. Because it does not warp, the wood was used for sounding boards and keys of pianos and organs. Fibres made from the wood have also been used to tie up plants. Lime flowers were used in various medicines and were also used to make lime flower tea and lime flower wine. The honey from the flowers was often regarded as the best flavoured and most valuable in the world. It was used exclusively for medicine and liqueurs. The leaves make a useful salad vegetable especially when they are young as they are thick and succulent. Before they begin to get rougher they can be used as a sandwich filling between slices of fresh bread with a little butter and some lemon juice. The grinding up of lime fruits was regarded as a substitute for chocolate but whilst it did not actually taste like chocolate it was a pleasant type of confectionary.
In folk lore the trees were planted at places of worship, much in the same way as yew trees, but it was also a sign of liberty In the old days battles were sometimes commemorated by the victors by planting lime trees. Local names include linden, lynd, pry and whitewood. The Gaelic name is teile and lime is the plant badge of the Clan Lindsey. There are examples of small leaved limes at Fairburn, Fearn and Evanton and the splendid looking tree in the photograph is at the entrance to Dunlichity churchyard a few miles south of Inverness. In conservation terms the main problem is that the seed rarely germinates and the trees spread by suckering. Even nurserymen find it difficult to raise the trees from seed so if isolated trees are cut down their main means of survival is by coppicing.