American Basswood Tree Information

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Images of American Basswood:

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American Basswood grows in the following 34 states and provinces:

Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Manitoba, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Brunswick, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin

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Information about American Basswood:

The Tilia Americana is commonly known as the American Basswood, Basswood as well as Linden.

The currently accepted scientific name for basswood is Tilia americana L. . Some authorities agree that T. americana, T. heterophylla, and T. caroliniana are more correctly treated as one highly variable species .

The native range of basswood extends from southwestern New Brunswick and Maine west to southern Quebec, southern and western Ontario, Michigan, Minnesota, and southeastern Manitoba; south to eastern North Dakota, northern and eastern Nebraska, eastern Kansas, and northeastern Oklahoma; east to northern Arkansas, Tennessee, western North Carolina, and New Jersey .

Basswood generally occurs in mixed stands and rarely forms pure stands . It is codominant in the sugar maple (Acer saccharum)-basswood cover type, and is a common component of many other mesophytic forests . Associates in the sugar maple-basswood type include white ash (Fraxinus americana), northern red oak (Quercus rubra), eastern hophornbeam (Ostrya americana), red maple (A. rubrum), and American elm (Ulmus americana) . Typical sugar maple-basswood communities in Wisconsin and Minnesota include 21 percent northern red oak, 35 percent basswood, 17 percent sugar maple, and 17 percent other species . To the east, eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) may be present, and communities on mesic sites would be more like the following: 52 percent sugar maple, 27 percent basswood, 14 percent yellow birch (Betula alleghaniensis), 4 percent eastern hemlock, and 3 percent other species . Publications in which basswood is listed as a dominant, codominant, or indicator species include: The vegetation of Wisconsin The principal plant associations of the Saint Lawrence Valley Deciduous forest A forest classification for the Maritime Provinces A classification of the deciduous forest of eastern North America .

Some of the information provided here is attributed to:Sullivan, Janet. 1994. Tilia americana. In: Fire Effects Information System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). , available at the USDA Fire Effects Information System (FEIS) website