Basswood
Basswood is the night-blooming jasmine of the eastern forest. If you are lucky enough to live on a street lined with basswood, you already know about the sweet fragrance this tree produces. If you are not so lucky, you may want to schedule an evening walk in the early summer in a neighborhood that's rich with these trees.
Trunk
While basswoods can get pretty wide, many are fairly thin and supple. Until a sapling gets fairly large, the trunk is quite flexible. The wood is lightweight and soft. It's useful for crates and other short-term, light-weight application. The pulp is used for paper.
Leaves
The large heart-shaped leaves are light green and generally arranged so as to catch as much sun as possible, creating a fairly complete canopy of shade. In the fall, these leaves turn a gentle yellow. These are some of the largest leaves you'll find on a native Wisconsin tree. Once you learn to identify basswood, you'll see them everywhere, and it'll be those large leaves that will attract your attention.
Fruit
Basswoods produce a small rough fruit that bears generally two perfectly round greenish-brown seeds. These seeds are much loved by small animals such as squirrels, and you will often find these seeds in a midden (a trash heap) at the base of a tree. Someone was sitting in a branch above that midden, chewing the seeds open and discarding the hulls!
If you're looking for a nice backyard shade tree, put basswood on your short list. Not only is it lovely year-round, but the shade is second to none.