Tilia miqueliana Seeds | Miquel’s Linden

Small, hard, pale brown Miquel's Linden seeds attached to a pale papery bract — Miquel’s Linden (*Tilia miqueliana*): Malvaceae, native to the warm woodlands of eastern China and Japan.

LATIN NAME: Tilia miqueliana

COMMON NAME: Miquel’s Linden, Miquel’s Lime

Plant Profile

Miquel’s Linden is a medium-sized deciduous tree, reaching twenty metres with a broad, rounded crown and large, heart-shaped leaves that are bright green above and covered beneath with a soft, starry down. In early summer it hangs clusters of small, creamy-yellow, fragrant flowers from pale, leaf-like bracts, and the whole crown hums with bees for a fortnight.

It grows in the warm woodlands of eastern China and Japan, and it has been cultivated for so long in temple grounds and gardens that its wild range is hard to establish. In Chinese it is nan jing duan, the Nanjing linden, and its timber is valued for carving and for musical instruments.

Science & Biotechnology

The genus is famous for its bracts, which act as a wing that helps the seed travel on the wind, and for the nectar that makes linden honey one of the most prized in Europe. Miquel’s Linden flowers later than the European species, which extends the season for bees in a garden where both are grown.

Its wood is soft, light and fine-grained, and it does not warp, which is why lime has been the carver’s wood of Europe for centuries and why the Chinese species is used for the same purpose. The species is one of the Asian lindens whose relationships have been studied with molecular markers, since the genus hybridises freely where species meet.

Uses & Benefits

The flowers are dried for linden tea, a mild, honey-scented infusion taken for colds and for sleeplessness, and the tree is a major honey plant wherever it is abundant. The timber is used for carving, turnery and instrument cases, and the inner bark has been used for cordage and for weaving.

In the garden it is a fine shade tree for a large lawn or an avenue, with clean foliage, a regular crown and a scent that carries across the garden in midsummer. It tolerates clipping and pollarding, and it is long-lived where the soil is deep and moist.

Growing from Seed

Sow the seed in autumn in a pot of loam and grit and leave it outside for the winter; linden seed has a hard coat and a deep dormancy, and germination may not begin until the second spring. A warm period followed by cold, or a few weeks of warm stratification before winter, improves the result.

Plant out in deep, moist, well-drained soil in sun or light shade, and water through the first two summers. Stake the young tree for its first few years, since the crown is broad and the roots are slow to anchor. Prune only to remove dead wood or to shape the crown while the tree is young.

Our Take

A linden for warmer gardens than the European species will take, with the same honeyed summer scent and the same fine carving wood. It wants deep soil and space, and it lives for a very long time.

Tree Seeds