This is the biggest basswood on all the land of the Forest Preserves of Cook County, first in their champion tree register.
American Basswood
Tilia americana
American basswood is the American lime, a broad, heart-leaved shade tree that for a fortnight around the turn of June into July hangs out pale flowers whose scent carries the width of a park, and bees work a big one hard enough that you hear it before you reach it. We map 3 of them, in 2 cities.
It grows quickly, so a big basswood need not be an old one, and nobody has dated any of these. Minnesota's state champion leans out over a slope behind the park building in Windom Park, Northeast Minneapolis, with nothing there to tell you so and no published measurements. In Busse Forest South outside Chicago, the county's champion and third-ranked basswoods stand 730 metres apart at exactly the same height, 24.4 metres. The difference is all trunk: 3.91 metres round against 3.11.
Chicago
This basswood is the third biggest the Forest Preserves of Cook County have measured on their land, and it stands just 730 metres from the champion.
Minneapolis
The largest American basswood recorded in Minnesota is standing in an ordinary neighbourhood park in Northeast Minneapolis, hanging out over a slope behind the park building, with nothing there to...
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