Question

Which plant is described by these clues? Peel a strip of inner bark and it comes away as long tough slippery fibres, and crushed young tissue turns water faintly slimy with {mucilage}. Under a lens the hairs on its young shoots and leaf undersides are {stellate}, several arms radiating from a single point rather than standing as single bristles. Each hanging flower cluster springs from a strap-shaped papery {bract} 2 to 3 inches (5 to 7 cm) long that is joined along part of its length to the cluster's own stalk, and stays attached to fly the ripe fruit away on the wind. Its many {stamen}s stand free of one another in bundles rather than being fused into a single column around the style, and petal-like {staminode}s alternate with the true petals. Its leaves are heart-shaped and set alternately, the blade meeting its stalk at a lopsided angle so the two sides of the base do not match. Those blades are small for such a large tree, only 2 to 3 inches (5 to 7 cm) across, with finely toothed margins and a glossy dark green upper surface. The underside is smooth and blue-green, carrying small tufts of rusty-coloured hairs tucked into the angles where the veins meet, and nothing like an all-over white felt. Pale yellow flowers open in June and July in hanging clusters of five to ten, heavily honey-scented, and honeybees work them so intensively that the resulting single-source honey is a named product across its native range. The epithet means heart-shaped, for the outline of the leaf. Aphids work the canopy all summer and rain sticky honeydew onto whatever stands below, which is the single reason this otherwise ideal street tree is kept away from parking bays and outdoor seating. A large upright tree of 40 to 60 feet (12 to 18 m) with a dense pyramidal crown, it is among the most planted avenue trees of Europe and North America, with over 500 named selections raised for street use since the 1800s.

Accepted Answer

Tilia cordata

Name That Plant #103