Hard, woody nuts about 1 cm long, white and fuzzy, usually with five raised ribs. They hang in bunches from a leafy strap.
Native, in England and Wales · Up to 42 m
Large-leaved lime
Tilia platyphyllos · Malvaceae
Large-leaved lime is a tall, domed tree with heart-shaped leaves that are fuzzy all over underneath. Its hard, woody nuts usually have five raised ribs.
Know it byRibbed nutsHard, white and fuzzy, about 1 cm, hanging from a leafy strap.
LeavesHeart-shaped, lopsided, 6 to 12 cm, brown tufts where veins meet.Three-scaled buds4 to 6 mm long, three scales showing, with a few fine hairs.
Ribbed nutsHard, white and fuzzy, about 1 cm, hanging from a leafy strap.LeavesHeart-shaped, lopsided, 6 to 12 cm, brown tufts where veins meet.Three-scaled buds4 to 6 mm long, three scales showing, with a few fine hairs.Then check · FlowersClusters of three to six yellowish white flowers in June, hanging below the leaves from a pale, leafy strap.
How to identify a large-leaved lime
Heart-shaped and lopsided at the base, 6 to 12 cm long, fuzzy all over underneath, with brown tufts where the veins meet.
Fat buds, grey or dull red, 4 to 6 mm long, with three scales showing and a few fine hairs on them.
Learn the large-leaved lime in TreelyEvery part through the year, and a short round each day until you know it.Get Treely
Every part, in photographs
rmjb, CC BY 4.0
Barry Walter, CC BY 4.0
When to look
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In leaf
Flowers
Ribbed nuts
In leaf: April to November · Flowers: June to July · Ribbed nuts: July to February
Where you’ll find it
Mostly planted, in parks, gardens, woods and plantations, and along roads. Wild ones are rare. They grow in woods on chalky or limy soils, on cliffs and in rocky gorges, in the Pennines, the Wye Valley, the Cotswolds and the south-east downs.
What it’s mistaken for
- Common limeBoth are big limes, and common lime is a cross of this tree with small-leaved lime. Leaf. Large-leaved lime: soft fur over the whole underside. Common lime: smooth and shiny, buff tufts at the vein joins.
- Small-leaved limeBoth are native limes with heart-shaped leaves, and small-leaved lime is the commoner of the two in the wild. Leaf. Large-leaved lime: soft fur over the whole underside. Small-leaved lime: smooth and slightly silvery, rusty tufts at the vein joins.
In the app
There’s more of the large-leaved lime in Treely
- Every part, through the yearLeaves, bark, buds, flowers and fruit, photographed in every season
- Its lookalikes, side by sideThe checks that settle it, part by part
- A short round each dayUntil you know the large-leaved lime on sight, from any side
- Name it from a photoA leaf, the bark or a flower, and Treely tells you which tree
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Every fact on this page is checked against the Collins Tree Guide, last in November 2026. Spotted something that looks wrong in front of a real tree? Tell us. How we check.
Photographs: sim_elliott (CC0), pilmar (CC0), rmjb (CC BY 4.0), Barry Walter (CC BY 4.0), peter_reynolds (CC0). With thanks to everyone who shares their photographs on iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons.