Nature Bulletin No. 422-A   June 5, 1971
Forest Preserve District of Cook County
George W. Dunne, President
Roland F. Eisenbeis, Supt. of Conservation

****:BASSWOOD

The American Basswood or Linden, of all our native trees, is the last 
to bloom. In June or early July its clusters of small cream-colored 5-
petaled flowers are 80 fragrant that they attract myriads of bees. The 
honey from this nectar has a delicious flavor, and tea made of the 
flowers is pleasant to drink. These clusters are peculiar, being oddly 
branched with the main stem attached to a narrow leaflike blade which 
is fastened at its end to a twig. The round pea-sized woody fruits 
which follow the flowers have seeds that are edible and, mashed or 
ground, can be used to make a beverage tasting something like cocoa.

This species, common in the northeast one-quarter of the United States 
and adjacent Canada, is easily identified Its dull dark-green leaves, 
with coarse teeth along the margins, are 5 or 6 inches long, almost as 
wide, and heart-shaped but usually lopsided It has the habit of sending 
up numerous vigorous sprouts from the base of its trunk. The thin bark 
on young trees is smooth and gray but that of old trees is furrowed into 
narrow flat ridges with horizontal cracks. It is a favorite of the yellow-
bellied sapsucker and on many trees we find row after row, all 
horizontal, of holes drilled by these birds. The smaller leaves of the 
White or Silver Basswood, a southern species, are silvery and very 
hairy on the underside. Other kinds are so nearly alike that experts 
become confused.

The basswood is a fast-growing tree, especially on fertile lowlands, 
and in the Ohio valley there were some more than 4 feet in diameter 
and 140 feet tall. Ordinarily they become from 50 to 90 feet high, with 
a compact symmetrical crown and slightly drooping lower branches. If 
injured at the base by fire or other cause, a basswood often becomes 
hollow from heart rot that extends upward until the tree is so 
weakened it may be blown over by a wind storm, but it has been 
extensively planted as a shade and street tree.

The European Linden, for which Berlin' s famous boulevard. Under 
den Linden, was named, has also been planted in this country. Known 
in England as the Lime tree, this species attained enormous size in a 
few famous locations and illustrates the complex source of our 
language. Linden originated from "lind", meaning flexible, which also 
became "line" and eventually "Lime". Basswood was originally 
"bastwood" and bast, like "baste", came from an ancient word meaning 
"to sew " . So there you are !

Basswood was a major source of fiber for prehistoric peoples and many 
tribes of American Indians. Women gathered long strips of bark from 
sprouts and saplings, peeled off the outer bark with their teeth and 
used the inner bark or bast. Usually it was soaked in water for two or 
more weeks and this "retting" process could be hurried by pounding 
the bast or by simmering it in vessels with wood ashes added to the 
water. The long soft fibers were twisted into cords and ropes for 
innumerable purposes: bags and mats; fishing lines and nets; sewing 
garments and the edges of cattail mats; sewing birch bark together to 
make canoes or containers such as those for storing maple syrup and 
sugar; tying the pole framework for wigwams and lodges; fastening on 
the mats of bark or skins or cattails to cover such shelters; etc.

The wood, white or creamy tan in color, is very light and soft but 
tough. Thin strips can be bent, dry, to make baskets, chair seats, and 
the honeycomb sections for beehives. It is widely used for 
woodenware, toys, barrel heads, boxes, crates, guitars and zithers, 
veneer and excelsior. It has proved especially valuable for artificial 
limbs. The Indians made grotesque masks of basswood because it is 
ideal for carving. We used to call it "whittlin'wood".