The American Basswood, Tilia americana, is a treasured hardwood tree of the Eastern and Central United States. It has a tall, straight trunk and rounded crown that provides excellent shade during the hot summer months.

Basswood seeds and twigs are a popular food for wildlife and the flowers smell and taste like honey, attracting over 60 insect pollinators, especially honey bees. The soft, light-colored wood has an even grain, long favored by wood carvers. Native Americans used the fibrous inner bark to make rope, which was used to bind wounds and stitch mats made from cattail leaves.

The specimen presented here was imaged with a Nikon E600 microscope operating with fluorite and/or apochromatic objectives and vertical illuminator equipped with a mercury arc lamp. Specimens were illuminated through Nikon dichromatic filter blocks containing interference filters and a dichroic mirror and imaged with standard epi-fluorescence techniques. The filter combination utilized for the basswood stem stained thin section was a triple cube specific for DAPI, FITC, and Texas Red. Photomicrographs were captured with a Optronics MagnaFire digital camera system coupled to the microscope with a lens-free C-mount adapter.

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