NIS - libdoc.who.int - World Health Organization

WHO monographs on medicinal plants commonly used in the Newly Independent States (NIS)
Tilia platyphyllos: bigleaf linden, broad-leaved lime, fleur de tilluel, Frühlinde,
Graslinde, Grossblättrige Linde, large-leaved linden, lehmus, lipa,
krupnolistnaja, lipa ploskolistnaja, mshvilpotola cachvi, platlapu liepa,
sommerlinde, storblading lind, summer linden, suurelehine pärn, tei mare,
tei cu frunza mare, tilleul à grandes feuilles (6–15).
Geographical distribution
Indigenous throughout Europe. It is common in northern temperate regions
of the world and is also cultivated (6, 7, 16–22).
Description
Tilia cordata. Medium-sized trees, about 20 m high; wide spreading
root system; crown, strikingly dense pyramidal when young, becoming
rounded when mature; bark grey to brown, ridged and furrowed on
older trees. (T. platyphyllos is about 30–40 m high, the branches are
thicker and less dense.) Buds: lateral buds alternate, no terminal buds,
two shiny glabrous bud-scales, reddish-brown or yellowish-brown, up
to 6 mm long and 4 mm wide. (T. platyphyllos has hairy non-shiny buds,
covered by three bud-scales.) Leaves: simple, cordate, oblique or cordate
base, finely serrate, dentate or bidentate, palmate; veinlets of third
order non-parallel; glabrous and slightly lustrous above, glabrous beneath
with axillary tufts of brown hairs, 2–8(12) cm long, 2–6(10) cm
wide, dark green above, bluish-green beneath; petiole 2.5–4.5 cm long.
Upper branches fertile, lower ones sterile. The leaves of sterile branches
are bigger and darker. (T. platyphyllos leaves have axillary tufts of white
hairs, 5–8(17) cm long, 6–9(19) cm wide, dark green above, pale green
beneath, with prominent parallel veinlets of third order.) Inflorescence:
5–15 flowered horizontal or erect cymes, bearing pale greenish-yellow,
leaf-like bracts; bract as long as inflorescence, about 6 cm long, 1–1.5 cm
wide; petiole 3–7 cm long. (T. platyphyllos has 2–7-flowered pendulous
cymes, the bracts are shorter than the inflorescence, 5–9 cm long, up to
2.5 cm wide.) Flower: actinomorphous, hermaphrodite, pentamerous;
petals greenish-yellow to pale yellow; stamens, about 30, no staminodes;
ovary, pubescent, superior, 5-locular with one smooth style,
5 stigmas; scented, geniculate peduncles are between 1.5 and 3 cm long.
(T. platyphyllos flowers 10–15 days before T. cordata.) Fruits: nutlets,
spherical, without ribs, thin shelled, 4–6 mm in diameter, brown to tan
when mature (T. platyphyllos has oval or pear-shaped nutlets, with
woody shell and 3–5 ridges, tomentose, cream-coloured, up to 1 cm in
diameter) (6, 23–30).
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