Tilia platyphyllos ‘Didam’ was found in a batch of Tilia platyphyllos (large-leaved linden) seedlings in 2014 by, the foreman of our nursery, Harm Didis from Opheusden, the Netherlands. Breeding takes place at Tree Nursery H&B Plant in Randwijk.
Use: Tilia platyphyllos ‘Didam’ is a powerful growing tree with a uniform, obvious erect, pyramidal crown and a straight central leader. The branches are explicitly growing diagonal erect.
It attracts attention because of its strongly upright crown and is very suitable as a avenue and park tree. It also thrives very well in green belts and landscape plantings.
Tilia platyphyllos ‘Didam’ is extremly suitable to be planted in urban areas because it is highly resistant to the pollution in and around cities. It contributes a lot to slow down global warming, captures a lot of nitrogen and CO2.
This large-leaved linden is both suitable for sunny and shady surroundings, grows on all kinds of soils and is very resistant to wind.
It provides a lot of nectar for bees and other insects.
Tilia platyphyllos ‘Didam’ is very winter hardy, winter hardiness zone 4 (-34,4 till -28,9 °C).
Remarkable by this species is that this linden is not susceptible for rust mite. Infestation by the linden aphid is rather rare. Due to its insusceptibility to rust mite the leaves stay green for a longer time and it also drops quite late in Autumn, until the end of November / beginning of December on average.
Twigs: The twigs on the sunny side are colouring light red, the ones on the shady side light green. During winter the ones on the sunny side slowly fade to dark red. The twigs are covered with egg-shaped lenticels which causes a slight rough surface. The upper side of the twigs stays strongly hairy, closer to the basis it will become bald on a later age.
Buds: Winter buds are 5-9 mm long, 4-7 mm wide and egg-shaped. The hairy bud scales are light red at the sunny side and light green at the shady side. The shortest bud scale is slightly bigger than half the length of the entire bud.
Leaves: The leaves are sprouting in yellow-bronze, later on they turn bright green at the upper-side and light green at the bottom. The bright green leaves are forming a nice contrast with the yellow-bronze sprouting leaves. Very late in Autumn the leaves are turning yellow.
The oval leaves are 80-180 mm long, 80-160 mm wide and have 7-9 pairs of branched side-veins. Its edges are roughly incised and serrated. Its apex is pointed or long pointed and the leaf base is heart-shaped (cordiform) or slanted heart-shaped.
The upper-side of the leaves is softly hairy. At the bottom the main veins and side-veins are extremely hairy with singular hairs. The axils of the main veins are covered with pale brown axil beards which turn browner later on.
Its hairy leaf stalk is obvious upright, coloured green till light red and 25-60 mm long.
Blooming: Tilia platyphyllos Didam’s yellow hanging flowers are blooming in bouquets of 1-5 from the end of June until the beginning of July. The fragrant flowers produce a lot of nectar for bees and other insects. It is a host plant for butterflies.
Fruits: The fruit is egg-shaped till round, 9-11 mm long and has a diameter of 4-5 mm.
Prices and availability can be obtained through e-mail: sandro@hbplant.nl.
