Linden

Tilia cordata

Also: Lime flower, Basswood, Tilia americana, Tilia platyphyllos

CoolingMoisteningRelaxing

Steadies the heart and soothes the nerves, gently enough for children.

A great shade tree whose small creamy flowers hang beneath a pale, tongue-shaped bract in early summer, filling whole streets with honey scent and bees. Linden relaxes tension in the heart and blood vessels, calms anxious nerves, and gently moistens.

Energetics: Cooling, moistening, relaxing
Taste: Sweet, mildly salty, mucilaginous
Family: Malvaceae (mallow family)
Parts used: Flowers with their bracts

Medicinal uses 7

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Traditional useLab and mechanism studiesClinical studies

Anxiety & stressTLC
Takes the edge off nervous, keyed-up days, and is mild enough for children.
High blood pressureTLC
Relaxes blood vessels and helps ease pressure that rises with stress.
Heart supportTLC
Eases a tight chest and a heart that races under stress.
Trouble sleepingTLC
A calming evening cup for restless sleepers.
Nerve painTLC
Calms nerve pain and the tension headaches that come at the end of a hard week.
FeverTLC
Hot linden tea opens the pores and lets the heat of a fever release.
Colds & fluTLC
A traditional European tea at the start of a feverish cold.

Preparations

Flower tea, long infusions, baths, and heart blends.

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Cautions

The flowers and leaves are very gentle. The bark is a different medicine and is avoided with blood thinners.
Can add to the effect of blood pressure medicines; tell your prescriber if you drink it daily.
Buy flowers dried promptly and stored well; old, stale linden loses its scent and its medicine.

Medication interactions

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Pregnancy & breastfeeding

PregnancyGenerally regarded as safe

A traditional European calming tea through pregnancy, with no known action on the uterus.

BreastfeedingGenerally compatible

Safe at tea strength and often suggested for nursing parents. Large amounts can make a baby sleepy.

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Folklore

Across Germanic and Slavic Europe the linden was the village tree: courts gathered under it to hear the truth, couples danced beneath it, and Berlin named its grand avenue Unter den Linden. Russian peasants wove sandals, the lapti, from strips of its inner bark. Schubert set the song Der Lindenbaum to a linden by a well, and in Lithuanian tradition the tree belonged to the goddess of fate, Laima.

How to grow

A large, long-lived tree that needs room. Small-leaved linden and American basswood both grow in sun or part shade in deep, moist soil. Harvest flowers with their bracts in early summer, a few days after they open, while they smell strongest.

In the wild

Small-leaved linden grows in mixed woods across Europe; American basswood grows in hardwood forests of eastern North America, often along streams.

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