Littleleaf Linden / Basswood

About Littleleaf Linden / Basswood in Alberta

Littleleaf Linden is Tilia cordata, an introduced planted linden in Alberta and Canada, not a native Alberta basswood. It is a documented Alberta urban and civic landscape tree, especially relevant to boulevards, parks, institutional grounds, campuses, cemeteries, and formal shade-tree plantings. For ARA, notable specimens are most likely older urban or institutional trees that show durable planted landscape history, successful prairie-city performance, or unusual size and condition for an introduced linden.

Identification: Leaves are alternate, heart-shaped, finely serrate, and notably smaller than American linden leaves, usually about 3 to 8 cm long. They are dark green above and paler beneath, often with small rust-colored tufts of hairs in vein axils on the underside. Small leaf size is one of the most important corrections for this entry.

Alberta range and habitat: Littleleaf Linden is not a wild Alberta tree. It should be treated as introduced and planted.