TulipTree (Tulip Poplar) (Murfreesboro Indigenous Plant Project (MIPP) Guide)

TulipTree (Tulip Poplar)

Liriodendron tulipifera

Summary ⁹

Liriodendron tulipifera—known as the tulip tree, American tulip tree, tulipwood, tuliptree, tulip poplar, whitewood, fiddletree, and yellow-poplar—is the North American representative of the two-species genus Liriodendron (the other member is Liriodendron chinense), and the tallest eastern hardwood. It is native to eastern North America from Southern Ontario and possibly southern Quebec to Illinois eastward to southwestern Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and south to central Florida and Louisiana. It can grow to more than 50 m (160 ft) in virgin cove forests of the Appalachian Mountains, often with no limbs until it reaches 25–30 m (80–100 ft) in height, making it a very valuable timber tree.

Description ⁹

The tulip tree is one of the largest of the native trees of the eastern United States, known in an extraordinary case to reach the height of 58.5 m (192 ft) with the next-tallest known specimens in the 52–54 m (170–177 ft) range. The trunk on large examples is typically 1.2–1.8 m (4–6 ft) in diameter, though it can grow much broader. Its ordinary height is 24–46 m (80–150 ft) and it tends to have a pyramidal crown. It prefers deep, rich, and rather moist soil; it is common throughout the Southern United States. Growth is fairly rapid.

The bark is brown, furrowed, aromatic and bitter. The branchlets are smooth, and lustrous, initially reddish, maturing to dark gray, and finally brown. The wood is light yellow to brown, and the sapwood creamy white; light, soft, brittle, close, straight-grained. Specific gravity: 0.4230; density: 422 g/dm³ (26.36 lb/cu ft).

Winter buds are dark red, covered with a bloom, obtuse; scales becoming conspicuous stipules for the unfolding leaf, and persistent until the leaf is fully grown. Flower-bud enclosed in a two-valved, caducous bract.

The alternate leaves are simple, pinnately veined, measuring 125–150 mm (5–6 in) long and wide. They have four lobes, and are heart-shaped or truncate or slightly wedge-shaped at base, entire, and the apex cut across at a shallow angle, making the upper part of the leaf look square; midrib and primary veins prominent. They come out of the bud recurved by the bending down of the petiole near the middle bringing the apex of the folded leaf to the base of the bud, light green, when full grown are bright green, smooth and shining above, paler green beneath, with downy veins. In autumn they turn a clear, bright yellow. Petiole long, slender, angled.

Distribution and habitat ⁹

Today the tulip tree is one of the largest and most valuable hardwoods of eastern North America. It is native from Connecticut and southern New York, westward to southern Ontario and northern Ohio, and south to Louisiana and northern Florida. It is found sparingly in New England; it is abundant on the southern shore of Lake Erie and westward to Illinois. It extends south to north Florida, and is rare west of the Mississippi River, but is found occasionally for ornamentals. Its finest development is in the Southern Appalachian mountains, where trees may exceed 50 m (170 ft) in height. It was introduced into Great Britain before 1688 in Bishop Compton's garden at Fulham Palace and is now a popular ornamental in streets, parks, and large gardens. The Appalachian Mountains and adjacent Piedmont running south from Pennsylvania to Georgia contained 75 percent of all yellow-poplar growing stock in 1974.

4. Ecology/Wildlife Use ⁹

In terms of its role in the ecological community, L. tulipifera does not host a great diversity of insects, with only 28 species of moths associated with the tree. Among specialists, L. tulipifera is the sole host plant for the caterpillars of C. angulifera, a giant silkmoth found in the eastern United States. Several generalist species use L. tulipifera. It is a well-known host for the large, green eggs of the Papilio glaucus, the eastern tiger swallowtail butterfly, which are known to lay their eggs exclusively among plants in the magnolia and rose families of plants, primarily in mid-late June through early August, in some states.

Growing Tulip Trees ⁹

Tulip trees make magnificently shaped specimen trees, and are very large, growing to about 35 m (110 ft) in good soil. They grow best in deep well-drained loam which has thick dark topsoil. They show stronger response to fertilizer compounds (those with low salt index are preferred) than most other trees, but soil structure and organic matter content are more important. In the wild it is occasionally seen around serpentine outcrops. The southeastern coastal plain and east central Florida ecotypes occur in wet but not stagnant soils which are high in organic matter. All tulip trees are unreliable in clay flats which are subject to ponding and flooding.

Like other members of the Magnoliaceae family, they have fleshy roots that are easily broken if handled roughly. Transplanting should be done in early spring, before leaf-out; this timing is especially important in the more northern areas. Fall planting is often successful in Florida. The east central Florida ecotype may be more easily moved than other strains because its roots grow over nine or ten months every year—several months longer than other ecotypes. Most tulip trees have low tolerance of drought, although Florida natives (especially the east central ecotype) fare better than southeastern coastal plain or northern inland specimens.

It is recommended as a shade tree. The tree's tall and rapid growth is a function of its shade intolerance. Grown in the full sun, the species tends to grow shorter, slower, and rounder, making it adaptable to landscape planting. In forest settings, most investment is made in the trunk (i.e., the branches are weak and easily break off, a sign of axial dominance) and lower branches are lost early as new, higher branches closer to the sun continue the growth spurt upward. A tree just 15 years old may already reach 12 m (40 ft) in height with no branches within reach of humans standing on the ground.

In the UK the species and its variegated cultivar 'Aureomarginatum' have both gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

Liriodendron tulipifera has been introduced to many temperate parts of the world, at least as far north as Sykkylven, Norway and Arboretum Mustila, Finland. A few nurseries in Finland offer this species even though it is not fully hardy there and tends to be held to shrub form.

Sources and Credits

(c) Léonce Carré, Jardin botanique de Lyon, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fleur_de_Liriodendron_tulipifera.jpg
(c) Bruce Marlin, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Liriodendron_tulipifera.jpg
(c) Liné1, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Liriodendron_tulipifera_%27Aureomarginatum%27_03_by_Line1.JPG
Dinkum, no known copyright restrictions (public domain), http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Liriodendron_tulipifera_7.JPG
(c) Dalgial, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Liriodendron_tulipifera_01.JPG
(c) Jean-Pol GRANDMONT, some rights reserved (CC BY), http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Liriodendron_tulipifera_-_La_Hulpe_(1).JPG
(c) Photo by David J. Stang, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Liriodendron_tulipifera_7zz.jpg
(c) H. Zell, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Liriodendron_tulipifera_002.JPG
Adapted by Murfreesboro,TN, Natural Resource Division from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liriodendron_tulipifera
(c) Murfreesboro,TN, Natural Resource Division, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)

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Family	Magnolia family

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