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White Basswood or Bee Tree

White Basswood or Bee TreeThe White Basswood, or Bee Tree of the South (Tilia heterophylla, Vent.), is an exceptionally handsome tree, for its bright leaves are pale beneath, often lined with fine, silvery down. As they flutter in the breeze they make a dazzling play of white and pale green against a background usually sombre with hemlocks and mountain laurel.

The white basswood is a lusty forest tree with a preference for the sides of mountain streams. It occurs at Ithaca, New York, and following the Alleghanies south from Pennsylvania, extends to Florida and Alabama, and west to Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee.

The leaves are narrower in most cases than those of the Northern species, but they vary in size and form, averaging somewhat larger than those of T. Americana. The fruits are ,lobular, with two seeds in each.