''Tilia mongolica''

Maxim. Carl Johann Maximovich (also Karl Ivanovich Maximovich, Russian: Карл Иванович Максимович; 23 November 1827 in Tula, Russia – 16 February 1891 in Saint Petersburg) was a Russian botanist. Maximovich spent most of his lif ...

, commonly known as Mongolian lime, is a tree native to mountains of the northern China, growing up to elevations of 1200–2200 m.Tang, Y., Gilbert, M. G., & Dorr, L. J. Tiliaceae, in Wu, Z. & Raven, P. (eds) (2007). ''Flora of China'', Vol. 12. Science Press, Beijing, and Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis, USA

/ref>

Description

Mongolian lime is a small slow-growing

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, ...

tree of rounded, compact habit, usually reaching < 10 m in height. The dense, twiggy growth and

glabrous Glabrousness (from the Latin '' glaber'' meaning "bald", "hairless", "shaved", "smooth") is the technical term for a lack of hair, down, setae, trichomes or other such covering. A glabrous surface may be a natural characteristic of all or part of ...

reddish shoots bear leaves 4–7.5 cm long, typically coarsely toothed with 3–5 lobes, superficially resembling ivy or maple leaves. The emergent leaves are bronze, turning glossy green in summer, and bright yellow in autumn.Hillier & Sons (1977). ''Hillier's Manual of Trees & Shrubs''. 4th edition. David & Charles, Newton Abbot, UK. The greenish-white flowers are borne in clusters of 6–20 in June and July.More, D. and White. J. (2003). ''Trees of Britain and Northern Europe'', p.691. Cassell's, London. Image:Tilia mongolica.jpg, Mongolian Lime at Exbury, UK Image:Tilia mongolica 21.jpg, Leaf and fruits of ''T. mongolica.''

Natural distribution

Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...

, Shanxi,

Henan Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is al ...

Hebei Hebei or , (; alternately Hopeh) is a northern province of China. Hebei is China's sixth most populous province, with over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. The province is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui, and 0 ...

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

, Liaoning, isolated locality in

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...

History of discovery and cultivation

1863: In the summer the mongolian lime was first collected by Pere

David David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

on slopes of the Baihua mountainKilpatrick, J. (2014). ''Fathers of botany: the discovery of Chinese plants by European missionaries''. University of Chicago Press, Chicago
Chapter 2
/ref> in the Taihang mountain range about 120 km west to

city center. The specimens collected by David can be seen in the herbarium of the

National Museum of Natural History The National Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. It has free admission and is open 364 days a year. In 2021, with 7 ...

, Paris. 1871: 12 July it was collected by Nikolay Przhevalsky on southern slope of Muni-ula in western part of the

Yin Mountains The Yin Mountains, also known by several other names, are a mountain range stretching across about of northern China. They form the southeastern border of the Gobi Desert and cross the Chinese provinces of Inner Mongolia and Hebei. Among othe ...

.Maximowiez C.J. ''Diagnoses de plantes nouvelles de l’Asie III.'' Bulletin de l'Académie impériale des sciences de St.-Pétersbourg (1880) 26(3)
433-434
/ref> One of Przhevalsky's specimens is held as an isotype in the herbarium of the

Kew Gardens Kew Gardens is a botanic garden in southwest London that houses the "largest and most diverse botanical and mycological collections in the world". Founded in 1840, from the exotic garden at Kew Park, its living collections include some of the ...

, London.Tilia mongolica Maxim.
in: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (2021). Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew - Herbarium Specimens. 1877: Again collected on the Baihua mountain by

Emil Bretschneider Emil Bretschneider ( in Bankaushof (now Benkavas muiža, Saldus novads, Latvia) – in Saint Petersburg) was a sinologist of Baltic German ethnicity and a correspondent member of the Académie française. He operated in the Russian Empire. H ...

. 1880:

Karl Maximovich Carl Johann Maximovich (also Karl Ivanovich Maximovich, Russian: Карл Иванович Максимович; 23 November 1827 in Tula, Russia – 16 February 1891 in Saint Petersburg) was a Russian botanist. Maximovich spent most of his life ...

published first scientific description of the tree based on the specimens collected by Przhevalsky and Bretschneider. 1880: Bretschneider sent seed to the Jardin des Plantes at Paris. 1882: Bretschneider sent seed to the Arnold Arboretum at Boston. 1896: A tree in the Jardin des Plantes, raised from the seed sent by Bretschneider, flowered. Some of the gathered seed were sent to the Kew Gardens. 1907: A tree raised in the Kew Gardens flowered while only 1.5 m high.Tilia mongolica Maxim.
in: Bean, W. J. ''Trees and shrubs hardy in the British Isles''. 8th edition
online edition
] 1913: Тhe mongolian lime was introduced to commerce in the UK by Harry Veitch at the Coombe Wood Nursery from material collected for him by

William Purdom William Purdom (10 April 1880 – 7 November 1921) was a British plant explorer. After being apprenticed as a gardener aBrathay Hallin the English Lake district, he traveled to London to work at the Hugh Low, Enfield Nursery, then onto the Veitch ...

in northern China.

Notable trees

A tree planted in 1896-1897 at the Kew Gardens reached in 2014 the height 14 m and still flourishes. The TROBI champion tree grows at

Thorp Perrow Arboretum Thorp Perrow Arboretum is an woodland garden arboretum near Bedale in North Yorkshire, England. History Thorp is a common place-name of Old Norse origin meaning hamlet or small village. In the Domesday Book of 1086 Thorp was a possession of ...

, Yorkshire. Planted in 1936, it measured 20 m tall by 59 cm

d.b.h. Diameter at breast height, or DBH, is a standard method of expressing the diameter of the trunk or bole of a standing tree. DBH is one of the most common dendrometric measurements. Tree trunks are measured at the height of an adult's breast, ...

in 2004.Johnson, O. (ed.). (2011). ''Champion Trees of Britain & Ireland''. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, London. A specimen planted in 1983 grows at

Exbury Gardens Exbury Gardens is a informal woodland garden in Hampshire, England with large collections of rhododendrons, azaleas and camellias, and is often considered the finest garden of its type in the United Kingdom. Exbury holds the national collectio ...

in Hampshire.

References

Literature

pp. 160–167. {{Taxonbar, from=Q1944479 mongolica Trees of China Trees of Mongolia Trees of Russia Flora of Siberia Flora of the Russian Far East Garden plants of Asia Ornamental trees Plants described in 1880