Little Leaf Linden

New York Works | A Brooklyn Arborist

On a recent afternoon, Roddick stood in the shade of a 70-foot-tall little leaf linden tree in the Garden . After considering the strength of linden wood, he hunched down and using an underhand technique tossed a thin rope over a specific branch.

"You gotta know that you picked a good branch," he said. "There's no thinking here because when you're climbing you don't get a second chance if you come out of the tree."

The fierce rainstorms in 2010 wreaked so much havoc at the garden that Roddick is still dealing with the damage.

His mission on this day is to clamber up the linden and cut down a dead branch. The procedure is more to protect those passing underneath than the tree itself. Two people, including a baby, were killed by falling tree limbs in Central Park in 2010.

"Trees are self-pruning, so they really don't need us to prune them. We just don't want to be underneath the tree when they self-prune. And that's where we come in," Roddick said.

There are more than five million trees in New York City, and Roddick said the delicate balance of nature and built environment means city trees need more care than country trees. In an urban environment, arborists protect pedestrians and keep trees alive.

"Trees are fighting for real estate in New York City just like everyone else, and often times their root systems get dug up through excavation or repairing the sidewalk," Roddick said.

Before Roddick hoisted himself up the linden tree using a rope that can handle 6000 lbs., he reflected on the dangers of his job.

"You're sitting on a half-inch thick rope with a chainsaw," he said. "That's not a smart thing to do I guess but that's what they pay us to do here."

When he got his first job as an arborist, Roddick was terrified of heights. But he loved trees and wanted the work. Eventually he realized he was breathing normally while a hundred feet up in the air, and now he loves being in the canopy.

"The architecture of the tree, being blown around in the wind with the tree and feeling that, it's an incredible feeling. It's very special and not many people get to do it, and I get to do it for a living," he said.

Clouds of sawdust sprayed everywhere as Roddick sawed through the dead branch, illuminating shafts of sunlight streaming through the leaves. The linden was stubborn, and the branch did not want to fall. So Roddick hammered in some wedges and gave the branch a little kick.

Nothing Better Than A Linden Tea

Is a genus of large decidous tree species, which grow in the temperate zones of the Northern hemisphere. They are usually called lime trees in Europe, and linden or basswood in the U.S. The lindens typically grow very tall, up to 70 to 100 feet.

Their leaves are heart-shaped, but their dimensions differ from species to species. Flowers are yellow and growing in small clusters, but similar in all species. They have a long ribbon-like bract attached to each flower. Its role is to make the pea-like seed to travel easy, twirling in the wind. Tilia flowers are sweet and sticky and the fruits are mucilaginous.

The flowers contain flavonoids which are acting like antioxidants; volatile oils which give the linden flower tea such a pleasant taste, but also mucilaginous constituents, which soothe and reduce inflammations. It also contains tannins which acts as astringent. This is why the linden flower tea is often used in healing many ilnesses, especially cough, colds, fever, headache, inflammation, and as a diuretic and sedative. I remember giving linden tea to my children to help them sleep well at night, just as my mom gave me when I was a child.

In our country are growing two linden species, Tilia tomentosa , also called American linden, that grows mostly in the U.S. 

F rom the two species growing in our country, the silver linden flowers make a better tea - as my mom always taught me, and I know which flowers to pick. However, the little-leaf linden blossoms have the highest level of flavonoids and other constituents, and have better results when used for medicinal purposes. The tea made with little-leaf flowers is more mucilaginous, which makes it a bit unpleasant, although the taste and scent are the same.

In June, when the lindens are starting to bloom and spread their strong scent in the air, it is a pleasure to walk outside, but not if you are allergic to pollen, like I am. However, this can be resolved with allergy medicine, so I can also enjoy this wonderful time of the year. Little-leaf lindens bloom first, and after their blooms are gone, the silver lindens start to bloom too. Many people, young and old, harvest the scented flowers from the trees, in the park or on the street; older people pick them from the lower branches, while younger people climb on ladders or chairs, and even climb up in the trees. I have always wondered why no one from the City Hall ever comes, in an organized manner, to harvest the linden flowers from all the trees we have in Bucharest. Some people aren't concerned about protecting the trees, which is why the tree branches are oftenly ripped off, when harvested in that manner. Usually, these people can be found selling the linden blossoms at the market or on the street, to make some extra money. But, all in all, those are only isolated incidents, so that the lindens have survived during all these years and some of them are very old, like a few hundred years old .