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Last night, a friend was over and mentioned the sweet smell he was smelling. I guess I just assumed it was normal for Summer in the neighborhood to have this fragrance and had never investigated where the scent came from.
Turns out, the big tree out back, covered in yellow blooms was the, um, culprit :) It is an American Linden / American Basswood: Tilia americana.
The leaves are edible for things like salads, and the blooms are used for tea. It has medicinal uses for blood pressure, etc. There is one warning from a study about too much tea causing cardio-toxicity, so do you research if you decide to try this.
In any event, the tree is BIG, so I could not reach enough blooms to dry for tea. The trees live around 200 years, evidently becoming nicely "old" and full of holes for animals as they get older. The leaves have a fairly pleasant, although definitely 'green' taste to them. I think younger leaves would have been better -- the one I chomped down on was pretty tough chewing.
Here are the leaves:
And the blooms. The 3 long "leaves" are special leaves for the bloom -- I think they are called bracts.
Size of the tree, and you can see all the blooms on it:
Turns out, the big tree out back, covered in yellow blooms was the, um, culprit :) It is an American Linden / American Basswood: Tilia americana.
The leaves are edible for things like salads, and the blooms are used for tea. It has medicinal uses for blood pressure, etc. There is one warning from a study about too much tea causing cardio-toxicity, so do you research if you decide to try this.
In any event, the tree is BIG, so I could not reach enough blooms to dry for tea. The trees live around 200 years, evidently becoming nicely "old" and full of holes for animals as they get older. The leaves have a fairly pleasant, although definitely 'green' taste to them. I think younger leaves would have been better -- the one I chomped down on was pretty tough chewing.
Here are the leaves:
And the blooms. The 3 long "leaves" are special leaves for the bloom -- I think they are called bracts.
Size of the tree, and you can see all the blooms on it: