[Cotham Marble]

Originally Posted by Tursiops2

Thanks CM, but that's too much info
I just want some idea whether a 60' lime in the garden of a house built in 1937 is likely to pre-date or post-date construction (for a question on another forum). I could have been more specific I suppose

Well at least I didn't go out and survey the local street plantings in an attempt to guage mortality rates LOL

An 18 metre height in 72 years gives an average of around 25cm a year - well within the realms of possibility I'd say. Mature height for T.europaeus (now T.vulgaris ?) is 35 metres and for a species with a maximal life span of 400 years and with mature height expected at perhaps 40% of that, say 160 years, 18 metres would suggest an age close to half way to maturity i.e 80 years.

I don't think there's anyway to give an absolute answer to which came first, the house or the tree, short of a photograph but as a it's a common cultivar and the ages of house and tree seem to match, the probability is that the tree was a planting associated with building of the house.

CM