American Basswood

The Tilia Americana is commonly known as American Basswood, Basswood, as well as Linden

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Growing Regions

The native range of basswood extends from southwestern New Brunswick and Maine west to southern Quebec, southern and western Ontario, Michigan, Minnesota, and southeastern Manitoba; south to eastern North Dakota, northern and eastern Nebraska, eastern Kansas, and northeastern Oklahoma; east to northern Arkansas, Tennessee, western North Carolina, and New Jersey [47].

     

General Information

The currently accepted scientific name for basswood is Tilia americana L. [47,29]. Some authorities agree that T. americana, T. heterophylla, and T. caroliniana are more correctly treated as one highly variable species [16,22,29].

Basswood generally occurs in mixed stands and rarely forms pure stands
[16].  It is codominant in the sugar maple (Acer saccharum)-basswood
cover type, and is a common component of many other mesophytic forests [24].

Associates in the sugar maple-basswood type include white ash (Fraxinus
americana), northern red oak (Quercus rubra), eastern hophornbeam
(Ostrya americana), red maple (A. rubrum), and American elm (Ulmus
americana) [16,24].  Typical sugar maple-basswood communities in
Wisconsin and Minnesota include 21 percent northern red oak, 35 percent
basswood, 17 percent sugar maple, and 17 percent other species [68].  To
the east, eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) may be present, and
communities on mesic sites would be more like the following: 52 percent
sugar maple, 27 percent basswood, 14 percent yellow birch (Betula
alleghaniensis), 4 percent eastern hemlock, and 3 percent other species [68].

Publications in which basswood is listed as a dominant, codominant,
or indicator species include:

The vegetation of Wisconsin [17]
The principal plant associations of the Saint Lawrence Valley [18]
Deciduous forest [31]
A forest classification for the Maritime Provinces [49]
A classification of the deciduous forest of eastern North America [53].

• More American Basswood Information

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