The Silver Lime of Kleverlaan

Dead bumblebees turn up under silver limes every summer, and botanists have argued about why for a century. The old explanation was that the nectar of Tilia tomentosa is mildly toxic to bees. The current one is duller and sadder: the tree flowers when almost nothing else does, so late season bumblebees with nothing left to visit work it until they run out. Either way, this is a tree that draws insects after the rest of the city has finished flowering. It stands in the oldest part of the Kleverlaan cemetery, on a path beside the water. The national register puts its planting between 1840 and 1850, which makes it roughly 175 to 185 years old and one of the oldest things growing on this ground. Turn a leaf over and the underside is white with felt, which is where the name comes from and why the whole crown flickers pale when wind moves through it. It is also why the species survives city dirt so well: the felt sheds it. The register is the only source we have located for this tree. Nobody has published a girth or a measured age, so the band above is the register's estimate rather than anyone's tape. If you have measured it, we would like the number.