Japanese Lime

Trees. Branchlets villous, soon glabrescent; terminal bud ovoid, glabrous. Petiole slender, 3-4.5 cm, glabrous; leaf blade brown when dry, orbicular or nearly so, 5-10 × 4-9 cm, leathery, abaxially hairy only in vein axils, adaxially glabrous, lateral veins 6-7 pairs, base cordate or rarely truncate, margin sharply serrulate, apex acute. Cymes 6-16-flowered, 5-7 cm; peduncle with proximal bract. Bracts on 1-1.5 cm stalk, narrowly oblanceolate or narrowly oblong, 3.5-6 × 1-1.5 cm, adnate to peduncle for 1/2 of length, glabrous. Pedicel 5-8 mm. Sepals narrowly oblong, 4-4.5 mm, sparsely stellate puberulent. Petals 6-7 mm. Stamens ca. 5 mm; staminodes slightly shorter than petals. Ovary hairy; style 3-4 mm. Fruit ovoid, not angled, stellate hairy; exocarp thickly leathery, fragile, indehiscent. 2n = 164.

Anhui, Jiangsu, Shandong, Zhejiang [Japan].

Tilia cordata Miller var. japonica Miquel, Ann. Mus. Bot. Lugduno-Batavi 3: 18. 1867; T. eurosinica Croizat; T. ulmifolia Scopoli var. japonica (Miquel) O. H. Sargent ex Mayr.