Photo showing a recently heavily pruned, pollarded lime tree pictured in the spring, with fresh foliage and lots of new shoots. In a few weeks, this tree will become a mass of leaves and its pruned, knobbly structure will be hidden until the autumn. Pollarding promotes a dense mass of twigs and helps to stop trees growing too large, and this crop of branches was originally used to feed animals or for fencing purposes. The Latin name for common lime trees is 'Tilia europaea', while they are also known as common linden trees.