Common Name: Tulip
Poplar
Scientific Name: Liriodendron tulipifera
Feature Tree: October 2001
Tulip Polpar
(click here for Tree of the Month archives)
Common Name: Tulip
Poplar
Scientific Name: Liriodendron
tulipifera
Family: Magnoliaceae
This Tree in Colorado:
The Tulip Poplar is a
very site-sensitive tree, favoring full sun and moist, well drained, slightly
acid soil. The
roots are wide spreading and massive, so this tree will do best if given plenty
room to grow.
Native Range and Habit: Tulip Poplars are beautiful ornamental trees with large conspicuous flowers and notched leaves on long petioles that quiver in the slightest breeze. It may because of this characteristic that it is associated with the name poplar, even though true poplars are in the Salicaceae or willow family. In its native range, on the east coast of the United States, a fast growing tree may be 120 feet tall and 18 to 24 inches in diameter by age 50. The branches usually start high on the trunk, spreading to form a crown up to 50 feet wide. Although, this tree can become quite large at young age, maturity is reached in about 200 years, with very old trees hitting the three century mark.
Interesting
Uses:
Early pioneers hollowed out the long, straight trunks to make thin
walled canoes – it was in such a canoe that Daniel Boone packed his family and
belongings and left Kentucky for the Spanish Territory.
To this day, Tulip Poplar wood is considered a very valuable timber
product.
Tulip tree honey is also a commercial product.
Fruit:
The
erect, conelike aggregate of samaras is 2½ to 3 inches long.
The winged seeds will flutter to the ground in Autumn, while the base of
the cone often persists into winter.
Leaves:
Deciduous,
4 to 6 inches in diameter, mostly four lobed.
Personal note from Melissa McHale (private consultant):
A friend once described a tulip poplar’s leaf as, “if cat woman had a
symbol this leaf would be it”. Ever
since then, I have always seen a cat’s face hidden in
the outline of a tulip
poplar leaf. In my opinion, no other leaf can compare in beauty.
Flowers: Appearing in late May or June after the leaves unfold; 1½ to
2 inches wide, cup shaped with 6 petal in two rows, light green yellow in color;
3 sepals; stamens and pistils are numerous and spirally arranged.
Flowers resemble magnolia flowers, hence the common name tulip magnolia.
Bark:
Young trees have dark
green and smooth bark with smooth white spots that break up into long, rough,
interlacing rounded ridges separated by ash gray fissures as the tree gets
older. The inner bark is also
bitter and aromatic.
Information Sources:
Harlow,
Harrar, Hardin and White. 1991. “Textbook
of Dendrology,” Seventh Addition.
Jonas, Gerald. 1993. “The Living Earth Book of North American Trees”.
Photos from Ohio's Department of Natural Resources
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