ID help: tree, and red spikes on leaves

[Simon W]

Hi all,

I need some help identifying the kind of tree outside my house planted by the city several years ago.

More importantly I'd like to know what those ugly "red spikes" on some of the leaves are. Are they mite galls? If so, how to get rid of them? About 20% of the leaves have these spikes.

Here are some pictures I just took today:

Entire tree:

close-up: and have a nice day.

[Stewart Robert Hinsley]

In message , Simon W writes

It's a lime (linden, basswood). I don't recognise the species, but from the white underside to the leaf (and it not looking like Tilia tomentosa) I'd guess at one of the forms of Tilia americana var heterophylla. The third "white" lime is Tilia oliveri.

"spikes" are nail galls. According to the RHS (Royal Horticultural Society, UK) you can't get rid of them, but they're harmless and should be tolerated.

[beecrofter]

Spikes:

> Thanks and have a nice day.

Eriophyid mites, my hort instructor said they were named by someone who hated vowells. Nothing to be done about them, no harm to the tree. Now you have a scrabble word guaranteed to elicit a challange.

[betsyb]

Spikes:

>>> Thanks and have a nice day.

Too many letters?

Betsy

[Treedweller]

Spikes:

>>>>> Thanks and have a nice day.

One might add "eriophy" to "id" assuming this word is in the official dictionary.

[betsyb]

Spikes:

>>>>>>> Thanks and have a nice day.

Not in the dictionary on my Hasbro online Scrabble game? Sorry.

Betsy