Tilia mongolica Maxim., commonly known as Mongolian lime, is a tree native to mountains of the northern China, growing up to elevations of 1200 - 2200 m.[1]
Mongolian lime is a small slow-growing deciduous tree of rounded, compact habit, usually reaching < 10 m in height. The dense, twiggy growth and glabrous reddish shoots bear leaves 4 - 7.5 cm long, typically coarsely toothed with 3 - 5 lobes, superficially resembling ivy or maple leaves. The emergent leaves are bronze, turning glossy green in summer, and bright yellow in autumn.[2] The greenish-white flowers are borne in clusters of 6 - 20 in June and July.[3]
Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Henan, Hebei, Beijing, Liaoning, isolated locality in North Korea.
1863: In the summer the mongolian lime was first collected by Pere David on slopes of the Baihua mountain[4] in the Taihang mountain range about 120 km west to Beijing city center.[5] The specimens collected by David can be seen in the herbarium of the National Museum of Natural History, Paris.[6]
1871: 12 July it was collected by Nikolay Przhevalsky on southern slope of Muni-ula in western part of the Yin Mountains in Inner Mongolia.[7] One of Przhevalsky's specimens is held as an isotype in the herbarium of the Kew Gardens, London.[8]
1877: Again collected on the Baihua mountain by Emil Bretschneider.[7]
1880: Karl Maximovich published first scientific description of the tree based on the specimens collected by Przhevalsky and Bretschneider.[7]
1880: Bretschneider sent seed to the Jardin des Plantes at Paris.[4]
1882: Bretschneider sent seed to the Arnold Arboretum at Boston.[4]
1896: A tree in the Jardin des Plantes, raised from the seed sent by Bretschneider, flowered. Some of the gathered seed were sent to the Kew Gardens.[4]
1907: A tree raised in the Kew Gardens flowered while only 1.5 m high.[9]
1913: Тhe mongolian lime was introduced to commerce in the UK by Harry Veitch at the Coombe Wood Nursery from material collected for him by William Purdom in northern China.[9]
A tree planted in 1896-1897 at the Kew Gardens reached in 2014 the height 14 m and still flourishes.[4] [9]
The TROBI champion tree grows at Thorp Perrow Arboretum, Yorkshire. Planted in 1936, it measured 20 m tall by 59 cm d.b.h. in 2004.[10]
A specimen planted in 1983 grows at Exbury Gardens in Hampshire.
Book: Donald Pigott
. Pigott. Donald. Donald Pigott. Lime-trees and basswood: a biological monograph of the genus Tilia. 2012. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. 9780521840545. pp. 160–167.