Tilia japonica

The Japanese lime or Japanese linden is in the mallow or Malvaceae family and is native to Japan and eastern China. It is a medium sized shade tree that typically grows to 18 m tall.

It superficially resembles the better-known Tilia cordata, the small-leaved lime, and was originally described as Tilia cordata var. japonica.

• Leaves are deciduous, simple, alternate, abruptly pointed, almost orbicular, light blue-green, up to 8 cm long, with sharply serrated margins, cordate bases and generally glaucous undersides. Young leaves have some pubescence on leaf veins underneath. Fall color is an undistinguished pale green to pale yellow.
• A leaf-like narrowly oblong floral bract diverges from the flower stalk near the base. Flowers are fragrant, pale yellow, in 7–40 flowered pendulous cymes, blooming in late spring to early summer (June).
• Fruit is a thin-shelled nutlet attached to narrow bract-like wings, ripening in late summer.
• Its 'Ernest Wilson' cultivar has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.