Tilia glabra Ventenat Tilia americana is a species of tree in the family Malvaceae, native to eastern North America, from southeast Manitoba east to New Brunswick, southwest to northeast Oklahoma, southeast to South Carolina, and west along the Niobrara River to Cherry County, Nebraska.

It is the sole representative of its genus in the Western Hemisphere, assuming T. caroliniana is treated as a subspecies or local ecotype of T.

The leaves are simple, alternately arranged, ovate to cordate, asymmetrical, unequal at the base (the side nearest the branch the largest), 10–15 cm (4–6 in) (can grow up to 25 cm or 10 in) long and broad, with a long, slender petiole, a coarsely serrated margin and an acuminate apex.

[5] They open from the bud conduplicate, pale green, downy; when full grown are dark green, smooth, shining above, paler beneath, with tufts of rusty brown hairs in the axils of the primary veins; the small stipules fall soon after leaf opening.

The flowers are small, fragrant, yellowish-white, 10–14 mm (13⁄32–9⁄16 inch) in diameter, arranged in drooping, cymose clusters of 6–20 with a whitish-green leaf-like bract attached for half its length at the base of the cyme.

The leaves emerge in mid-spring, but the flowers require day lengths of approximately 14 hours and 30 minutes to form, hence T. americana's range is limited to north of the 35th parallel.

[2][6][7] American basswood is dominant in the sugar maple–basswood forest association, which is most common in western Wisconsin and central Minnesota, but occurs as far east as New England and southern Quebec in places that have mesic soil with relatively high pH.

[5] The wood is pale brown, sometimes nearly white or faintly tinged with red; light, soft with fine close grain; clear of knots but does not split easily.

It is usually used for guitars that will be painted an opaque color as its lack of notable grain makes it an unattractive candidate for transparent finish.

It exhibits a very balanced,[14] even tone with a good low/mid-midrange projection making it suitable for a wide variety of musical applications.

This could be because its tonality helps level out the thin, tinny sound associated with knife edged tremolo contacts that many modern rock and metal players use as bridges on their guitars.

[14] Recently, basswood was used in the development of "Nxylon", a super-black material discovered by University of British Columbia researchers.

[16] As the primary wood used to create Nxylon, basswood's natural properties contribute to the material's lightweight, stiff structure that can be easily cut into intricate shapes.

The use of basswood in Nxylon demonstrates how a common, sustainable resource can be transformed into a high-tech material with applications in fine jewelry, solar cells, and precision optical devices.

Active ingredients in the linden flowers include flavonoids (which act as antioxidants), volatile oils, and mucilaginous constituents (which soothe and reduce inflammation).

[17] Linden flowers are used in colds, cough, fever, infections, inflammation, high blood pressure, headache (particularly migraine), as a diuretic (increases urine production), antispasmodic (reduces smooth muscle spasm along the digestive tract), and sedative.

The flowers were added to baths to quell hysteria, and steeped as a tea to relieve anxiety-related indigestion, irregular heartbeat, and vomiting.