American basswood (Tilia americana)
Malvaceae, the mallow family
How to recognize American basswood. The leaves are large, alternately arranged, cordate (heart-shaped) with a markedly asymmetric base, and coarsely toothed, with the teeth long-pointed.
![](https://dendro.ohioplants.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/American-basswood-leavers-750x563.jpg)
American basswood leaves are large heart-shaped, and coarsely serrate.
Flowers and fruits. American basswood flowers are perfect (i.e., containing both male and female parts), somewhat showy, and fragrant. They are a principal summer nectar source for honeybees. (basswood honey is a “thing.”)
![](https://dendro.ohioplants.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/American-basswood-flowers-750x500.jpg)
American basswood flowers are perfect (containing both anthers and a pistil).
Very fragrant, they are eagerly sought by bees.
July 9, 2006, Delaware Ohio.
They are a principal summer nectar source for large bees. (basswood honey is famous.) The photo below shows a bumblebee.
![](https://dendro.ohioplants.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/American-basswood-bee-750x500.jpg)
A bumblebee visiting a basswood flower.
The flowers, and later the fruits, are borne in few-flowered clusters at the end of a stalk that is fused for part of its length to a strap-shaped leaf-like bract.
![](https://dendro.ohioplants.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/American-basswood-fruits-750x500.jpg)
American basswood fruits in mid-August.
They are dry drupes. Note the foliaceous bracts.
Bark. The American basswood trunk is uniform in diameter without low branches, and has fine ridges running lengthwise.
![](https://dendro.ohioplants.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/American-basswood-trunk-563x750.jpg)
American basswood trunk.
In the winter. American basswood buds are ovoid, scaly, and dark purple.
![](https://dendro.ohioplants.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/American-basswood-twig-500x750.jpg)
American basswood twig.
Where to find American basswood. E. Lucy Braun, in The Woody Plants of Ohio (1961, 1989; The Ohio State University Press) tells us that American basswood is “A forest tree of northern range, most abundant toward the northwest, where it is a dominant tree of the Maple-Basswood Forest region. Frequent in Ohio in the glaciated area.”
Scanned Image from an Old Book
(Flora of West Virginia, by P.D. Strausbaugh and Earl L. Core)
![](https://dendro.ohioplants.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/basswood-core.jpg)
American basswood
Ooh, ooh, I have a question!
Is basswood wood especially good for anything?
Smooth, uniform and soft, basswood is an ideal wood for carving. A simple search of the online retailer Amazon.com for example, shows this:
![](https://dendro.ohioplants.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/amazon-basswood-750x498.jpg)
Basswood is great for carving.