The hard balls fall to the ground as they rotate. The fruits of the summer linden tree are also called nose sweeps. If you look at the little nuts, you can see at first glance what property they owe this nickname to. A thin, parchment-like wing adorns the angular balls and, with its ability to fly, promotes the proliferation of the deciduous tree. You are probably also familiar with that typical cracking sound under your feet when you walk through the fallen leaves of the linden tree and step on the hard balls. Find out here what characteristics characterize the fruits of the summer linden tree and how they differ from other types of linden tree.
What do the fruits of the summer linden tree look like and when do they ripen?
The fruits of the summer linden tree are gray, felty capsule fruits that are about 1 cm long and have three to five edges. They ripen in September of the second year and hang on the tree until winter. These fruits contain healing essential oils.
Characteristics of the fruits of the summer linden tree
- The fruits of the summer linden tree are capsule fruits or nuts, which you can recognize by the following properties:
- ripe in September of the second year
- heavily woody
- spherical with three to five edges
- about 1 cm long
- have a parchment-like wing
- stay hanging on the tree until winter (October-December)
- hairy, felty
- gray
The difference between the fruits and other types of linden trees
The fruits of a linden tree are easy to identify. But do you also know the individual differences between the various species in detail? You can find out more here:First, you can use the color of the fruits to distinguish the summer linden tree from its counterparts. The fruits of the summer linden tree are gray and felty. Meanwhile, there are also species with green fruits like
- the Dutch lime tree
- and the silver linden tree
or linden trees with brown fruits like
- the Crimean linden tree
- the American lime tree
- or the winter linden tree
There is another difference to the fruits of the winter linden tree. This species produces a larger quantity of nuts. In contrast to the hard capsules of the summer linden tree, they are soft and can be crushed between the fingers.
The fruits of the summer linden tree have a healing effect
Like the leaves and flowers of the summer linden tree, the fruits contain essential oils that have proven themselves as home remedies in natural medicine.
