WHITE BASSWOOD; BEE TREE; LINDEN (rain heter. ophylia, Vent.). 50 to 60 feet. Lusty, handsome, narrowly pyramidal tree, with green or red twigs, with pale, large len ticels, and tough inner bark, used for ropes. Bark thin, furrowed, the ridges scaly. Wood pale reddish brown, soft, close-grained. Leaves alternate, unsymmetrical at base, heart-shaped or truncate, narrowly tapering to sharp apex, saw-toothed, 4 to 7 inches long, 4 to 5 inches wide, bright green, silvery white, downy beneath, on stems 2 to 3 inches long. Flowers in June, fragrant, nectar-laden, creamy yellow,
in pendent cluster, with narrow, leaf-like green bract attached to peduncle near base. Fruit nut-like, dry, 1- to 2-seeded, size of a pea, grayish, pubescent, in cluster winged with dry bract, narrow, leaf-like, 2 to 3 inches long. Dist.: Slopes and stream banks, southern New York to Alabama, along west slopes of Appalachian Mountains; west along the valley of the Ohio River to its mouth.