New Lime Trees Returned the Historical Look to Tverskaya Street

Now in the summertime the air on Tverskaya Street in Moscow will be loaded with honey-like lime scent. Yesterday morning first lime trees were planted there, and not just small seedlings but quite mature seven-meter-tall and 35-year-old trees.

“Now traditional autumn planting of trees is taking place in Moscow. A unique planting is under way in „Zaryadye“ at the moment. First trees are going to appear in the park. More trees are getting planted in „Luzhniki„. But the most exciting fact is, of course, that the trees are appearing on historical streets, where were none of them for decades. In the result of reconstruction there appeared an opportunity to purify the underground space, to reduce volume of communication lines and thus to plant trees on Tverskaya Street, New Arbat, and Garden Ring. The first trees have been planted. Historical lime trees have been brought back to Tverskaya. You can already see and enjoy them. I think that when the programme will be completed, the city will be greener and more comfortable“, — said Mayor Sergei Sobyanin.

Historically, there had always been lime trees lining Tverskaya Street, but in the 1990s they disappeared. At first, because of poor care trees began to perish and then they were tritely hacked away. At the moment, the downtown is being restored and on the 6^th of November all landscaping works on Tverskaya will be completed. The trees were grown in the nursery by special technology, transposing them every 3-4 years. It was made for root assemblage to get mature (less likely that the tree won’t strike its roots) and to become compact. Out of 104 trees planned for planting, 90 are of Pallida variety, these are the very seven-meter-tall lime trees.

This species forms tap root and heavy root system in the surface soil. It reaches 30-35 m in height. Out of all species of lime trees this one produces the least dead standing trees in the old age. Slightly glossy large oviform leaves have 7-10 cm in length. Leaves are of bright green color, autumn coloring is bright yellow. Even in dry years foliage keeps its green color for a long time. The flowering time of lime tree: June-July. On Tverskaya Street lime trees of 7-8 m tall and 60-70 cm in diameter are being planted.

It is planned to complete works on tree planting in the downtown before the beginning of New Year’s festival events. Species of trees were chosen in order to create beautiful color effect on the city streets during spring-summer and autumn period. All trees planted are large-size, 3.5-8 m tall and 16-35 years old. Technology of their growing entails transposing every 3-4 years. This way trees receive compact root system and proportionally developed compact crown, and ability to survive transportation and replanting to their new site.

Besides, from the 8^th to the 24^th of November 2016 works on trees planting will take place at the entrances to the city of the outgoing highways: Rublyovskoye Motorway, Varshavskoye Motorway, Yaroslavskoye Motorway, Leningradskoye Motorway, Kashirskoye Motorway, Mozhaiskoye Motorway, Leninsky Prospekt (1647 trees).