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The dendrochronological potential oflime (Tilia spp) from trees at HamptonCourt Palace UKAndy K Moir a b amp Suzanne AG Leroy ba Tree-Ring Services Hungerford Berkshire UKb Institute for the Environment Brunel University UxbridgeLondon UKPublished online 13 Apr 2013

To cite this article Andy K Moir amp Suzanne AG Leroy (2013) The dendrochronologicalpotential of lime (Tilia spp) from trees at Hampton Court Palace UK Arboricultural Journal TheInternational Journal of Urban Forestry DOI101080030713752013783173

To link to this article httpdxdoiorg101080030713752013783173

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The dendrochronological potential of lime (Tilia spp) from treesat Hampton Court Palace UK

Andy K Moirab and Suzanne AG Leroyb

aTree-Ring Services Hungerford Berkshire UK bInstitute for the Environment Brunel UniversityUxbridge London UK

Common lime (Tilia pound europaea L) and large-leaved lime (Tilia platyphyllos Scop)are dendrochronologically and dendroclimatologically analysed for the first time Limeis thought to be sensitive to climate change Once a dominant species in Europe it hasbeen in general decline from 3100 BC but recently it has been found to be increasingthe northern limits of its range Twenty-five trees from Hampton Court Palace (UK) arecross-matched to form a 138-year chronology spanning from AD 1866 to AD 2003The relationships with climate were investigated using monthly instrumental records ofprecipitation and temperature from Kew between AD 1872 and AD 1997 The age ofthe lime trees was found to correlate well with girth (r frac14 087) The annual resolutionof the chronology is robustly supported by regional cross-dating against established oakand yew chronologies Summer precipitation (May June and August) was shown to bea time-stable determinant of annual variation in radial growth Problems of indistinctboundaries and missing rings which become more prevalent in trees over 100 years ofage may limit the dendrochronological potential of lime

Keywords climate change dendrochronology dendroclimatology lime trees TiliaHampton Court

Introduction

In arboriculture and urban forestry the determination of tree age is useful to identify the

chronology of parks and gardens to forecast future tree size and threats associated with

increasing age and to identify individuals of particular conservation value Dendroclima-

tology one of the sub-disciplines of dendrochronology enables the identification of both

tree age and relationships between ring width and climatic variables In areas where a

particular tree species is suitably responsive and long-lived andor where past wood is

recoverable the discipline may enable climate records to be reconstructed at annual

resolution centuries before instrumental data are available In the British Isles the climatic

relationships of few tree species other than oak (Kelly Leuschner Briffa amp Harris 2002)

Scots Pine (Briffa et al 2001 Moir Leroy amp Helama 2011) yew (Moir 1999) and elm

(Brett 1978) have been examined All these genera have well-defined rings suitable for

tree-ring analysis Lime (Tilia spp) has not been previously dendroclimatologically

analysed This is possibly because it is only rarely found in old buildings and it has a

tendency to decay rapidly if damp Furthermore lime trees over 350ndash400 years of age are

typically hollow (Pigott 1989)

At the northern limits of its range in theLakeDistrict ofEngland limehasbeenconsidered

a relict species due to its limited production of fertile seeds and pollen evidence of decline

after 3100 year BC (Pigott ampHuntley 1980) The small-leaved lime (Tilia cordataMill) and

q 2013 Taylor amp Francis and Aboricultural Association

Corresponding author Email akmoirtree-ringcouk

Arboricultural Journal The International Journal of Urban Forestry 2013

httpdxdoiorg101080030713752013783173

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large-leaved lime (Tilia platyphyllos Scop) species are both native to the UK but are near the

northern limits of their European ranges Small-leaved lime is essentially a continental species

known to require summer temperatures$208C at flowering for several consecutive days to

produce viable seed (Pigott amp Huntley 1981) It has had difficulty growing from seed in the

UK under contemporary climatic conditions but suitable conditions to permit fertilization

may have been more prevalent during the medieval warm period (Pigott 1989) Recently

Gray andGrist (2000) reported the natural regeneration of lime as far north as Perth Scotland

Large-leaved lime is nationally a scarce tree (Newlands 1999)Where both small- and large-

leaved limes occur they can hybridise resulting in common lime (Tilia pound europaeaL)which

is also a widely planted ornamental tree

Limes (Tilia spp) are one of the tallest broad-leaved trees inmost areas of Great Britain

They can achieve a height of 35ndash40m a diameter of 100ndash300 cm and live up to 1000 years

(Mayer 1977) Multi-stemmed self-coppicing limes can live much longer (Pigott 1993)

Lime trees have played a major role as an architectural element in gardens in many

European countries since the late seventeenth century Owing to their aesthetic value lime

trees have become increasingly important in urban and open landscape in recent decades

The avenues of a double row of lime trees on both sides of the Long Water at Hampton

Court Palace UK form the central feature of a great baroque patte drsquooie layout (Figures 1

and 2) This was originally commissioned by King Charles II soon after his restoration in

AD1660 It is the finest surviving example of its kind inGreat Britain The following history

of the lime trees at Hampton Court is summarised from a report by Gough (2000) Adrian

May a royal gardener purchased a consignment of 758 common limes fromHolland which

were planted in AD 1661 The average life expectancy of a European lime tree is 200ndash250

years so the LongWater avenuewas in its prime at the beginning ofQueenVictoriarsquos reign

A policy of gapping up those trees in the avenue which had perished was largely

unsuccessful due to competition with older trees Many trees used in gaps were also a

different species of lime or planted in the wrong positions which resulted in a gap-toothed

canopy The 1987 hurricane in Southern England affected the LongWater avenue badly By

2000 the original population of 544 trees had dwindled to 300 with only 7 original tree

specimens remaining The original trees were also a cause of problems as disease

(particularly several types of bracket fungus) and old age had left them in a dangerous

condition

In 2003 the lime trees of the royal palace park in Hampton Court were felled (Figure 2)

to allow the replanting and restoration of the avenues which presented a useful opportunity

for dendroclimatological and dendrochronological analysis Indeed on one hand lime

should be considered if it has the potential to become a new proxy for estimating global

change on the other hand the dating of old lime trees will contribute to the corpus of

knowledge on gardens of a historically significant place The aims of this research were (1)

to establish the ages of the trees sampled (2) to establish relationships between the radial

growth and meteorological climate records (3) to identify whether lime might be a useful

species in dendrochronology and (4) to interpret the ages of the sampled trees into the

cultural landscape of Hampton Court

Materials and methods

Sampling and chronology building

Full trunk sections were sawn by operators at Hampton Court typically from 20 to 30 cm

above the ground level For practical reasons V-section samples were cut across the widest

diameter to provide two radii for measurement (Figure 3) Standard dendrochronological

2 AK Moir and SAG Leroy

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techniques were then utilised for sample preparation measurement cross-matching and

dating (Stokes amp Smiley 1968) Cross-matches are reported using raw ring-width data and

the standard Studentrsquos t-value statistic Those t-values in excess of 35 are accepted as

significant where supported by visual comparison

Growth rates

Tree-ring series commonly contain age trend caused by the general reduction in the ring

width as trees get progressively older and pass through the formative mature and senescent

phases of growth (White 1998) For useful visual comparison between tree growth rates

cumulative plots were produced to help emphasise the underlying biological age growth

trend (Figure 4)

Figure 1 Map of Western Europe showing the location of Hampton Court


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Dendroclimatic analysis

The series were standardised (a process to remove age trends) using ARSTAN software

(Cook Briffa ShiyatovampMazepa 1990) andwere detrended using a negative exponential

curve or linear regression with power transformation (Cook amp Peters 1997) to reduce

potential end-effect inflation of resultant indices The chronology statistics generated from

the standardised series are described in Table 1 Mean sensitivity is a measure of the mean

relative change between adjacent ring widths (Fritts 1976) Values over 030 are high and

indicate that the tree-ring series are highly responsive to environmental factors while low

Figure 3 A V-section sample cut from a full section

Figure 2 A standing and felled lime tree along the Long Water at Hampton Court Palace UK


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values indicate weak inter-annual variance The expressed population signal (EPS)

(Wigley Briffa amp Jones 1984) measures the degree to which the chronology correlates (or

agrees) with a theoretical population chronology The value of EPS ranges from 0 to 1 with

1 being the best possible value (the hypothetically perfect chronology)

Growthndashclimate relationships were examined using correlation functions as a

statistical model to compute coefficients between tree-ring chronologies and monthly

climatic variables (Blasing Solomon amp Duvick 1984) These coefficients are univariate

estimates of Pearsonrsquos product moment correlation Correlation function analyses and

moving interval correlation function analysis were carried out using DENDROCLIM2002

software (Biondi amp Waikul 2004) which tests significance at the 005 level A 14-

month analysis period extending from September in the year before growth to October of

the year of growth was selected Residual tree-ring chronologies (which have proved to

Figure 4 Cumulative plot tree rings

Table 1 General statistics of lime chronologies from the arstan standard chronology

File name MS AR1 R(bt) SNR EPS

HPLIME 033 029 067 1599 094

Note Common interval frac14 1910ndash1990 MS mean sensitivity AR1 first-order autocorrelation R(bt) betweenseries correlation SNR signal to noise ratio EPS expressed population signal


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yield more climatic information and minimise autocorrelation) were used with monthly

maximum temperature minimum temperature and precipitation as predictors Monthly

temperature and rainfall series for Kew (a meteorological station 95 km south west of

Hampton Court) were used in this analysis (Wales-Smith 1980) Temperature and rainfall

can be intercorrelated causing an apparent negative association between temperature and

ring width when using correlation to examine climatendashgrowth relationships as

highlighted by Fritts (1976) To help resolve this problem response function analysis

(which transforms the predictor variables into uncorrelated principal components) was

also carried out using DENDROCLIM2002 However as response coefficients tend to be

lower than correlation coefficients the results are only summarised

Results

Chronology

The results of the cross-matching between 25 samples against both oak and yew reference

chronologies are described below The trees sections were generally quite circular in form

and showed no signs of hollowing Pith was recovered in all cases Twenty-five out of the

30 samples (83) were successfully measured and cross-matched Nineteen series were

from common lime and four from large-leaved lime Two samples were labelled with the

same number and therefore could only be established as Tilia spp The 25 cross-matched

together were used to form a chronology called HPLIME which spans 1866ndash2003 The

annual resolution of this tree-ring series is confirmed by cross-matching against both oak

and yew existing reference chronologies (Table 2) The rings in years 19491950 1964

and 1985 were the narrowest rings and most commonly missing Instances of missing rings

were more frequent in older trees ie after the first 80 years of growth In five series where

the rings to bark could not be reliably measured it was calculated that a missing ring

occurred on average once every 12 years suggesting a 12 underestimation of tree age

from ring counts in lime trees over 50 years of age

Growth rates and age

The ages and girths of the 25 cross-matched trees (Figure 4) together with five ring

counted trees are plotted in Figure 5 and the following regression equation is calculated

as follows

AGE frac14 10577 pound GIRTH ethin mTHORN2 11672 ethStandard error frac14 3125THORN

Prior to c 1898 only common lime hybrids appear to have been planted However

after c 1898 both common limes and large-leaved limes are shown to have been planted

The three oldest trees used in this equation could not be reliably measured but were ring

counted to be 312 269 and 250 years of age The oldest tree is therefore estimated to have

been growing since at least 1691 However assuming that it was one of the original limes

planted in 1661 this suggests an underestimation by ring counting of around 10 adding

further evidence of a 10ndash12 underestimation of age of lime trees from ring counts Plots

of cumulative ring width show no common differences in the radial growth rates of the two

species of lime in this study The mean formative growth rate is 384mmyear21 and

the transition between formative and mature growth occurs after 50 years of growth

(Figure 4) A mature growth rate of 325mmyear21 is applicable to trees between 50 and

100 years of age These results confirm that very few of the trees originally planted in 1661

survived


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Growthndashclimate relationships

The statistical parameters of the standardised chronologies developed are shown in

Table 2 Mean sensitivity the relative change in ring widths from 1 year to the next (high-

frequency signal) is 033 which is high in comparison to values for oak Scots Pine and

yew in the UK First-order autocorrelation a measure of the influence of the previous

yearrsquos growth on the current year (Fritts 1976) is low (029) indicating little persistence

from one yearrsquos growth to the next The EPS value is 094 which is above a 085 value

suggested by Wigley et al (1984) as reasonably strong and suitable for climatic studies

Rainfall in the summer months of May June and August was shown by correlation

analysis to be the strongest determinant of ring width in lime (Figure 6) A positive

relationship between lime growth and rainfall also occurred in winter relating to the

previous November Moving correlation analysis shows that the relationships with

precipitation in May June and the previous November are time stable (Figure 7)

However precipitation in April and July ceased to be a significant factor in growth from

around the 1980s onwards while precipitation in August became significant Correlations

between ring growth and temperature are not time stable (Figure 7)

Discussion

The dendrochronology of lime

This study identifies that lime series cross-matched together and usefully against existing

chronologies of oak and yew It is important not only for estimating the ages of lime trees that

could not successfully be cross-matched but also for estimating the age of standing trees that

Table 2 Cross-matches of HPLIME chronology with oak and yew reference chronologies

File nameStartdate

Enddate t-Value

Overlap(years) Species

Chronology andshort reference

SEYEW11 AD1719 AD2009 702 138 Yew Churchyards of SE England(Moir in preparation)

YATLY-WW AD1829 AD2003 695 138 Oak Wych Wood ndash Yateley ndashHampshire (Moir unpublished)

HPYEW92 AD1690 AD1992 622 127 Yew Hampton Court Palance ndash GTLondon (Moir 1999)

SLG AD1764 AD1993 621 128 Oak Scarles Grove ndash SotterleyEstate ndash Suffolk (Moir 1996)

EVSLY-BR AD1815 AD2003 606 138 Oak Brick House ndash Eversley ndashHampshire (Moir unpublished)

SWW AD1806 AD1992 599 127 Oak Southwell Lane ndash SotterleyEstate ndash Suffolk (Moir 1996)

HERWOR2 AD1729 AD1969 591 104 Oak Hereford and Cumberland (Sie-benlist-Kerner 1978)

BRIT002 AD1754 AD1979 572 114 Oak Bath ndash Avon (Pilcher unpub-lished)

MSC AD1820 AD1995 550 130 Oak Mendhams Corner ndash ScotterleyEstate ndash Suffolk (Moir 1996)

HVYEW00 AD1814 AD2000 538 135 Yew Happy Valley ndash Coulsdon ndashLondon (North 2000)

HVOAK00 AD1814 AD2000 538 135 Oak Coulsdon ndash London (North2000)

COBHAM AD1770 AD2001 513 136 Oak Cobham ndash Kent (Arnold et al2003)


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can only be girthmeasured (Figures 4 and 5) The likelymaximumandminimum limits of age

for a given radius of a standing tree can be identified from Figure 4 This study confirms a

relatively short lifespan of maiden lime trees in formal avenues Only 1 of the 30 lime trees

sampled could be a survivor from the original planting in 1661 Although not shown here the

earliest campaign of re-planting probably occurred c 1898 (Moir 1996) which suggests that

trees in the avenue had started to die off around 230 years after the original planting It is also

of interest that only after c 1898 large-leaved limes were used in the avenues Whether it

might be possible to extend the 138-year long lime chronology established back further in

time is not clear but the population of ancient lime trees in the north of England (Pigott 1989)

could hold the potential to produce millennium-long chronologies

Insufficient samples of large-leaved limes were available to establish a useful

chronology to identify possible differences in correlations with climate between this

species and hybrids However as cross-matching and growth rates showed no clear

differences all the samples were combined in this analysis A similar approach is typically

Figure 5 Plot of girth against tree age

Figure 6 Correlation functions of the residual chronology with monthly maximum temperature(T-max) minimum temperature (T-min) and precipitation (Prec) Correlations are for an 80-yearperiod (1911ndash1990) Note none of the relationships shown were found to be significant by responsefunction analysis


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applied in the dendrochronological analysis of British oaks (Quercus robur L) and Sessile

Oaks (Quercus petraea) where samples from these two species are usually combined

Some problems in the analysis of lime were encountered in ring boundary

identification and the occurrence of missing rings in older trees Lime appears to be an

intermediate between diffuse-porous and ring-porous tree species The start of each ring is

defined by a ring of xylem parenchyma (Pigott 1989) but these boundaries are often

poorly distinguished In particular narrow rings the boundary was not always present

which can make the identification of an annual ring difficult The width of rings also varied

considerably narrow rings tended to be ldquolocally missingrdquo (ie visible around only part of

the circumference) but ldquofalse ringrdquo boundaries could also occur within a ring (parallel to

the ring boundary) and are difficult to distinguish from true ring boundaries The first 10ndash

20 rings of growth were found to be particularly prone to very narrow rings and so they

could not be reliably measured and were only counted

Physiological relationships with climate

Correlation between ring growth and rainfall in May June and August rainfall is positive

which indicates that higher rainfall tends to lead to the development of wider rings and

conversely lower rainfall leads to narrower rings (probably through water stress) Low

precipitation limiting the radial growth during the growing season is a relationship that

lime shares with yew (Moir et al 2011) and oak

Maximum and minimum temperatures in January indicate that lower mean temperatures

in January are unfavourable for the radial growth in lime Maximum temperatures in March

are unexpectedly shown to have negative relationships with ring width and the absence of

a corresponding correlationwithminimum temperature inMarch suggests that above average

early spring temperature is unfavourable for radial growth in lime A physiological

mechanism for this relationship may be that premature loss of winter hardiness followed by

freezing kills or injures expanding tender tissues such as buds flowers leaves and shoots

Moving correlation analysis shows that these relationships start from 1980 for January and

1962 forMarch temperatures Taking into account the 80-year base length of the analysis this

indicates that they have become significant since the 1940s and 1920s respectively Losses of

Figure 7 Contour map showing moving correlation values of climatic variables against HPLIMEring-width indices A moving 80-year base length over the period 1872ndash1997 is used only the lastyear of the interval coefficients significant at a level of (p 005) and months that show $9consecutive years of values in the HPLIME chronology are shown Months in CAPS identify those inthe year prior to ring growth


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correlations between ring width and maximum temperatures in April and precipitation in

March and April are also shown to occur around this period from the 1930s While these

observed changes in correlations could relate to the effects of climate change they might

equally be responses to changed age and species composition in the chronology Other

environmental factors such as competition between trees might also be involved

Future research

Apremise of tree-ring studies has long been held that treesmore sensitive to temperature tend

to be found in the high latitudes andor altitudes near their climatically determined limits of

distribution (Fritts 1976) Therefore the sampling of lime trees planted further north is

important to establish a relationship between radial growth and climate near the limits of

limesrsquo range Lime trees have potential to become a useful indicator species for global

warming at high latitudes (Chen Hill Ohlemuller amp Thomas 2011) Radoglou et al (2008)

showed that lime trees grow faster in the first 50 years of life than beech but by the age of 100

years beech stands yield about 30 more than lime Additional research on Tilia might be

considered useful to help predict their future yields and effects under a climate-warming

scenario

The potential to acquire samples useful for dendrochronological analysis by the

cutting of V-sections from the stumps of previously felled trees is highlighted V-

sectioning from where the radii were widest helped overcome the problem of missing rings

in this study and this could be a useful method to gain material for dendrochronological

studies from the stumps left of old trees of all species

Acknowledgements

This research was funded by Hampton Court Palace UK We are grateful to Graham Dillamore forthe collection and transportation of samples Donald Pigott and Rikard Andersson made usefulcomments that helped improve this paper

Notes on contributors

Andy K Moir is Director of Tree-Ring Services and a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in the Institutefor the Environment at Brunel University He has worked on the tree-ring analysis of trees andtimber-framed buildings for over 20 years

Suzanne AG Leroy is Professor of Geography and Earth Sciences at Brunel University Herresearch focuses on palaeoclimates palaeoecology and the reconstruction of past natural hazards

References

Arnold A J Howard R E Laxton R R amp Litton C D (2003) Tree-ring analysis of timbersfrom Cobham Hall Cobham Kent English Heritage Centre for Archaeol Rep 502003

Biondi F amp Waikul K (2004) Dendroclime2002 A Cthornthorn program for statistical calibration ofclimate signals in tree-ring chronologies Computer amp Geosciences 30 303ndash311

Blasing T J Solomon A M amp Duvick D N (1984) Response functions revisited Tree-ringBulletin 44 1ndash15

Brett D W (1978) Elm tree rings as a rainfall record Weather 33 87ndash94Briffa K R Osborn T J Schweingruber F H Harris I C Jones P D Shiyatov S G amp

Vaganov E A (2001) Low-frequency temperature variations from a northern tree ring densitynetwork Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres 106(D3) 2929ndash2941

Chen I-C Hill J K Ohlemuller R amp Thomas C D (2011) Rapid range shifts of speciesassociated with high levels of climate warming Science 333 1024ndash1026


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Cook E R Briffa K R Shiyatov S G ampMazepa V (1990) Tree-ring standardization and growth-trend estimation In E R Cook amp L A Kairiukstis (Eds) Methods of dendrochronologyApplications in the environmental science Dordrecht Kluwer Academic

Cook E R amp Peters K (1997) Calculating unbiased tree-ring indices for the study of climatic andenvironmental change The Holocene 7(3) 361ndash370

Fritts H C (1976) Tree rings and climate New York NY Academic PressGough T (2000) A restoration plan for the Long Water Avenue Hampton Court Place London

Internal Report for the Gardens amp Estate Managers Hampton Court PalaceGray R K S amp Grist N R (2000) Natural regeneration of limes (Tilia spp) in Scotland Locally

widespread and more numerous in 1999 Glasgow Naturalist 23 13ndash16Kelly P M Leuschner H-H Briffa K R amp Harris I C (2002) The climatic interpretation of

pan-European signature years in oak ring-width series The Holocene 12 689ndash695Mayer H (1977) Waldbau auf soziologisch-okologischer Grundlage Stuttgart Gustav Fisher

VerlagMoir A K (1996) A dendrochronological analysis of 9 oak compartments from the Sotterley

Estate Suffolk England An interim report Hungerford Tree-Ring ServicesMoir A K (1999) The dendrochronological potential of modern yew (Taxus baccata) with special

reference to yew from Hampton Court Palace UK New Phytologist 144(3) 479ndash488Moir A K Leroy S A G amp Helama S (2011) Role of substrate on the dendroclimatic response

of Scots pine from varying elevations in Northern Scotland Canadian Journal of ForestResearch 41 822ndash838

Newlands C D (1999) Habitats and rare plants of the Durham and Southern Magnesian Limestonenatural areas with reference to the SSSI series Naturalist 124 23ndash27

North D (2000) A dendrochronological investigation into yew (Taxus baccata) trees on the NorthDowns Greater London (Unpublished MSc thesis) University of Greenwich Greenwich

Pigott C D (1989) Estimation of the age of lime trees (Tilia spp) in parklands from stem diameterand ring counts Arboricultural Journal 13 289ndash302

Pigott C D (1993) The history and ecology of Ancient woodlands In P Beswick I D Rotherhamamp J Parsons (Eds) Ancient woodlands Their archaeology and ecology ndash A coincidence ofinterest Also published in Landscape Archaeology and Ecology 1 1ndash11

Pigott CDampHuntley J P (1980) Factors controlling the distributionofTilia cordata at the northernlimits of its geographical range II History in north-west EnglandNew Phytologist 84 145ndash164

Pigott C D amp Huntley J P (1981) Factors controlling the distribution of Tilia cordata at thenorthern limits of its geographical range III Nature and causes of seed sterility NewPhytologist 87 817ndash839

Radoglou K Dobrowolska D Spyroglou G amp Nicolecu V N (2008) A review on the ecologyand silviculture of limes (Tilia cordata Mill Tilia platyphyllos Scop and Tilia tomentosaMoench) in Europe (pp 1ndash29) Retrieved from httpwwwvalbrouni-freiburgde

Siebenlist-Kerner V (1978) The chronology 1341ndash1636 for certain hillside oaks from WesternEngland and Wales In J M Fletcher (Ed) Dendrochronology in Europe Vol 51 BAR Int Ser(pp 295ndash301) Oxford Archeopress

Stokes M A amp Smiley T L (1968) An introduction to tree ring dating Chicago University ofChicago Press

Wales-Smith B G (1980) Revised monthly and annual totals of rainfall representative of KewSurrey and an updated analysis for 1697ndash1976 Meteorological Office HydrologicalMemorandum 43

Wigley T M L Briffa K R amp Jones P D (1984) On the average value of correlated time-serieswith applications in Dendroclimatology and Hydrometeorology Journal of Climate and AppliedMeteorology 23(2) 201ndash213

White J E J (1998) Estimating the age of large and veteran trees in Britain Forestry CommissionInformation Note 250


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The dendrochronological potential of lime (Tilia spp) from treesat Hampton Court Palace UK

Andy K Moirab and Suzanne AG Leroyb

aTree-Ring Services Hungerford Berkshire UK bInstitute for the Environment Brunel UniversityUxbridge London UK

Common lime (Tilia pound europaea L) and large-leaved lime (Tilia platyphyllos Scop)are dendrochronologically and dendroclimatologically analysed for the first time Limeis thought to be sensitive to climate change Once a dominant species in Europe it hasbeen in general decline from 3100 BC but recently it has been found to be increasingthe northern limits of its range Twenty-five trees from Hampton Court Palace (UK) arecross-matched to form a 138-year chronology spanning from AD 1866 to AD 2003The relationships with climate were investigated using monthly instrumental records ofprecipitation and temperature from Kew between AD 1872 and AD 1997 The age ofthe lime trees was found to correlate well with girth (r frac14 087) The annual resolutionof the chronology is robustly supported by regional cross-dating against established oakand yew chronologies Summer precipitation (May June and August) was shown to bea time-stable determinant of annual variation in radial growth Problems of indistinctboundaries and missing rings which become more prevalent in trees over 100 years ofage may limit the dendrochronological potential of lime

Keywords climate change dendrochronology dendroclimatology lime trees TiliaHampton Court

Introduction

In arboriculture and urban forestry the determination of tree age is useful to identify the

chronology of parks and gardens to forecast future tree size and threats associated with

increasing age and to identify individuals of particular conservation value Dendroclima-

tology one of the sub-disciplines of dendrochronology enables the identification of both

tree age and relationships between ring width and climatic variables In areas where a

particular tree species is suitably responsive and long-lived andor where past wood is

recoverable the discipline may enable climate records to be reconstructed at annual

resolution centuries before instrumental data are available In the British Isles the climatic

relationships of few tree species other than oak (Kelly Leuschner Briffa amp Harris 2002)

Scots Pine (Briffa et al 2001 Moir Leroy amp Helama 2011) yew (Moir 1999) and elm

(Brett 1978) have been examined All these genera have well-defined rings suitable for

tree-ring analysis Lime (Tilia spp) has not been previously dendroclimatologically

analysed This is possibly because it is only rarely found in old buildings and it has a

tendency to decay rapidly if damp Furthermore lime trees over 350ndash400 years of age are

typically hollow (Pigott 1989)

At the northern limits of its range in theLakeDistrict ofEngland limehasbeenconsidered

a relict species due to its limited production of fertile seeds and pollen evidence of decline

after 3100 year BC (Pigott ampHuntley 1980) The small-leaved lime (Tilia cordataMill) and

q 2013 Taylor amp Francis and Aboricultural Association

Corresponding author Email akmoirtree-ringcouk


httpdxdoiorg101080030713752013783173

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