American basswood, Tilia
americana, was
once considered to be three or four different species, but now two of the
others are just varieties, which have slight differences such as the distribution of hair on the underside of the leaves.Basswood is an interesting large tree with
inequilateral/obliquely cordate leaves where the silvery undersides are seen flashing
during breezes such as just before a storm.The flowers are strongly attractive to bees thus basswood, which is sometimes called bee tree, is an
excellent honey plant that results in one of the lightest colored monofloral
honeys available. The seed are attached
to a bract that functions as a wing during dispersal.The trunk of the tree often has a ring of
suckers and occasionally very large rings of trees can be found where the
original tree no longer exists.The twigs also have a zigzag pattern between
the alternate leaf nodes that is still evident on hiking stick sized saplings
after four or five years.Preliminary
data shows that the fibrous bark is to difficult to remove for making numerous
hiking stick to be practical.This fiber
was once used for thread or twine.The
wood is light in both weight and color, which is good for high quality paper. I’m
experimented with making a hiking stick from a sapling; the wood was very light weight like princess tree, Paulownia tomentosa, although basswood is to brittle in comparison thus it may not be quite suitable for a hiking stick due to issues with flexibility
and/or strength, but at least it breaks clean rather than with sharp points on
multiple pieces like tulip-poplar, Liriodendron
tulipifera.
