Lime – Large Leaved – Small Leaved and Common

Tilia sp.

• Also known as the linden tree.
• This tree has loads of uses for bushcraft.
• The leaves are edible, and tasty, and make a nice base for a foraged salad.
• Large and small leaved lime interbreed, fortunately for us they have very similar properties so we don’t need to tell them apart.
• The inner bark can be processed to make a really strong durable cordage – this is the kind of cordage that Otzi the Ice Man, who lived over 5000 years ago, had on his person, and it is still regularly used today in bushcraft.
• In the spring the bark can be carefully separated from the wood of the trunk and used to make containers, these are hardwearing and can be made to be waterproof too.
• The trees are native to the UK.
• For the urban forager they are often found pollarded (all their branches cut back between 6ft and 9ft high) along streets.
• I have been using lime leaves instead of vine leaves to make the Greek stuffed vine leaves with rice and it works really well. My lime Domladas recipe.
• The wood of lime is great for hearth boards for fire by friction with the bow drill.
• Its light shock absorbency was also utilised in shield construction with the centre of shields often being made of lime.