Like other species in this genus, Silver Lime is highly variable. It has become a popular street tree, being fast-growing, cold-hardy, drought-tolerant and host to relatively few aphids. Introduced by 1767.

Native to eastern Europe, from the Balkan peninsula and eastwards through Turkey to Ukraine. Widespread in north-west Europe, but infrequent in Britain and even less so in Ireland, sometimes self-seeding in towns and cities.

Monoecious. Insect-pollinated. Wind-dispersed.

Large (40m), with a tidy domed crown. Bark pale grey, maturing into a criss-cross lattice of ridges. Twigs densely downy for a year; buds brown, densely felted, alternate, with 2(-3) visible scales. Leaves (10-12cm), rounded, sometimes 3-5-lobed, dark green with star-hairs soon shed above, pale and densely star-haired below, finely serrate. Flowers in a pendulous cyme of 4-10, strongly sweetly scented. Fruits ellipsoid (8-10mm), densely grey-brown downy without a prominent rib, with a papery bract.