Friday, January 6, 2012

Unidentified plant

This sketch is of a plant I'm hoping one of you will recognize. So far, I've been unable to identify it. It's rather unusual. The stems the seeds are on appear to come out of the middle of the leaf. The seeds are about 8 mm tall and they have a "dusty" brownish-grey color. The leaves are about 10 - 12 cm long with smooth edges. They were found on the ground of a college campus but the tree from which they came could not be determined. Unfortunately, a friend found them and brought them to me so that's all the information I have. Thanks for any help you can give. Thanks, Paula in VA

6 comments:

  1. :) That's one of my favorite trees, the Linden. The flowers make lovely honey, and they are medicinally useful too. I'd guess it is Tilia cordata, but it might be a different species. A great plant all around. And what a lovely drawing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Also called American Lime...I love them too!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Looks like the genus Tilia to me. The American lime, Linden, or Basswood tree most likely (Tilia americana)

    ReplyDelete
  4. I knew right away I've seen it, but didn't know its name. I just learned something. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thank you all so much. I know we have Linden trees here but I didn't know how to recognize them. Now I do, at least when the seeds are on them. I knew I could count on you all.

    ReplyDelete
  6. The seeds you have drawn actually fly like little helicopters to the ground, because of the wing (in italian, "samara" is that kind of seed...)and it's exhilarating to watch hundreds of them catching the wind and pirouetting through the air! I agree on the Tilia family.Cordata has brown, smaller seed heads.

    ReplyDelete

We'd love to hear from you, your questions, comments, observations! Please feel free to comment, feedback is important to us.