Tilia is a genus of about 30 species of trees or bushes, native throughout most of the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The species are known as linden or lime for the European and Asian species, and linden or basswood for North American species and more generally in American literature. The greatest species diversity is found in Asia, but the genus also occurs widely in Europe and eastern North America. Under the Cronquist classification system, this genus was placed in the family Tiliaceae, but genetic research summarised by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group has resulted in the incorporation of this genus, and of most of the previous family, into the Malvaceae.
Warming up spring temperatures made hornbeam and linden trees leaf out earlier but also drop their leaves earlier in autumn, suggesting that how fast a tree grows early in the year shapes when it shuts down for winter.
