Heart-shaped and lopsided at the base, 3 to 8 cm long. The underside is smooth and slightly silvery, with rust-coloured tufts where the veins meet.
Native, in England and Wales · Up to 38 m
Small-leaved lime
Tilia cordata · Malvaceae
Small-leaved lime is a domed tree with heart-shaped leaves 3 to 8 cm long and rust-coloured tufts underneath where the veins meet. In summer its flowers stick out at all angles, most of them pointing upward.
Know it by
LeavesHeart-shaped, 3 to 8 cm, lopsided at the base, silvery below.
Upright flowersFive to eleven yellowish white flowers in June and July.Red budsFat, smooth and red.
LeavesHeart-shaped, 3 to 8 cm, lopsided at the base, silvery below.Upright flowersFive to eleven yellowish white flowers in June and July.Red budsFat, smooth and red.Then check · BarkGrey or buff and smooth when young, breaking into lumpy ridges from about 30 years, often with a skirt of shoots at the base.
How to identify a small-leaved lime
Clusters of five to eleven yellowish white flowers in June and July, held at all angles, most of them pointing upward.
Fat, smooth red buds, with one big scale and one small.
Learn the small-leaved lime in TreelyEvery part through the year, and a short round each day until you know it.Get Treely
Every part, in photographs
chrisdt, CC BY 4.0Daniel Cahen, CC BY 4.0
uxbridgebirder, CC BY 4.0When to look
JFMAMJJASOND
In leaf
Flowers
Nuts on straps
In leaf: April to November · Flowers: June to July · Nuts on straps: July to December
Where you’ll find it
Mostly planted in streets and parks. Wild ones grow only in old woods and hedges in England and Wales, on damp but well-drained, rich soils. As a wild tree it is now scarce, found only in scattered places, and in parts of England a wild one marks out ancient woodland.
What it’s mistaken for
- Common limeBoth are limes with lopsided heart-shaped leaves and the same two-scaled bud. Leaf. Small-leaved lime: 3 to 8 cm, barely covering the palm. Common lime: about 10 cm long and as wide.
- Large-leaved limeBoth are native limes, and large-leaved lime is the rarer of the two. Leaf. Small-leaved lime: smooth, with rust tufts where veins meet. Large-leaved lime: soft fur over the whole underside.
In the app
There’s more of the small-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 small-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: uxbridgebirder (CC BY 4.0), chrisdt (CC BY 4.0), Daniel Cahen (CC BY 4.0). With thanks to everyone who shares their photographs on iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons.