This lime tree is showing a mass of fruit beside the South Walk.
The Garden has an extensive collection of Tilia (lime trees), which was developed by our previous Director Donald Pigott. A member of the Malvaceae (mallow family), the genus has a complex taxonomy, and accounts suggest that the genus numbers between 20 and 45 species of deciduous trees from Europe, Asia and North America. Species have alternate ovate to cordate shaped leaves with toothed or lobed margins, and small, fragrant, creamy-white, cup-shaped flowers. The small fruits are either a round, ovoid or 5-angled nutty capsule, and are usually hairy. Tilia chingiana is a Chinese species from mountain forests of Anhui, Jiangsu, Jiangxi and Zhejiang provinces, and is uncommon in cultivation. It grows to approximately 15m. The leaves are either symmetrical or asymmetrical and have distinctive toothed margins, and the downy fruits are up to 1cm long and have a woody wall. This species takes its specific name chingiana from the botanist Ching Ren-Chang, who collected the type specimen in Anhui province in 1925.