Tulip Tree (New York City EcoFlora Volunteer Guide)

Tulip Tree

Liriodendron tulipifera

Summary ⁵

Liriodendron tulipifera — known as the tulip tree, American tulip tree, tuliptree, tulip poplar, whitewood, fiddle-tree, and yellow poplar — is the Western Hemisphere representative of the two-species genus Liriodendron, and the tallest eastern hardwood. It is native to eastern North America from Southern Ontario and Illinois eastward across southern New England and south to central Florida and Louisiana. It can grow to more than 50 m (165 feet) 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. It is fast-growing, without the common problems of weak wood strength and short lifespan often seen in fast-growing species. April marks the start of the flowering period in the southern USA (except as noted below); trees at the northern limit of cultivation begin to flower in June. The flowers are pale green or yellow (rarely white), with an orange band on the tepals; they yield large quantities of nectar. The tulip tree is the state tree of Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee.

At the Garden ⁶

Tuliptree is showcased as the component tree of the Garden's double-allee leading to the Mertz Library Building. While beautiful in cultivation, this species also grows as a wild tree in the forests of the garden and is commonly found as a mature tree and as a seedling or sapling in the Thain Family Forest.

Description ⁷

The tulip tree is one of the largest of the native trees of the eastern United States, known to reach the height of 60 m (190 ft), with a trunk 3 m (10 ft) in diameter; its ordinary height is 20 to 30 m (70 to 100 ft). It prefers deep, rich, and rather moist soil; it is common, though not abundant, nor is it solitary. Its roots are fleshy. Growth is fairly rapid, and the typical form of its head is conical.

The bark is brown, and furrowed. The branchlets are smooth, and lustrous, initially reddish, maturing to dark gray, and finally brown. Aromatic and bitter. 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).

The alternate leaves are simple, pinnately veined, measuring five to six inches 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.

A description from Our native trees and how to identify them by Harriet Louise Keeler:

The leaves are of unusual shape and develop in a most peculiar and characteristic manner. The leaf-buds are composed of scales as is usual, and these scales grow with the growing shoot. In this respect the buds do not differ from those of many other trees, but what is peculiar is that each pair of scales develops so as to form an oval envelope which contains the young leaf and protects it against changing temperatures until it is strong enough to sustain them without injury. When it has reached that stage the bracts separate, the tiny leaf comes out carefully folded along the line of the midrib, opens as it matures, and until it becomes full grown the bracts do duty as stipules, becoming an inch or more in length before they fall. The leaf is unique in shape, its apex is cut off at the end in a way peculiarly its own, the petioles are long, angled, and so poised that the leaves flutter independently, and their glossy surfaces so catch and toss the light that the effect of the foliage as a whole is much brighter than it otherwise would be.

The flowers are large, brilliant, and on detached trees numerous. Their color is greenish yellow with dashes of red and orange, and their resemblance to a tulip very marked. They do not droop from the spray but sit erect. The fruit is a cone 5 to 8 cm (2 to 3 in) long, made of a great number of thin narrow scales attached to a common axis. These scales are each a carpel surrounded by a thin membranous ring. Each cone contains sixty or seventy of these scales, of which only a few are productive. These fruit cones remain on the tree in varied states of dilapidation throughout the winter.

Liriodendron tulipifera "tulip" flower

Liriodendron tulipifera golden autumn leaves and seed cones

Liriodendron tulipifera, large gray-green flower bud with yellow bract

Liriodendron tulipifera seeds

Tulip tree, unfolding leaves

Tulip tree leaf

Leaves of 'Aureomarginatum'

Liriodendron columnar trunk in streambank woods, North Carolina

Mature example of the east central Florida ecotype Dr. Howard A. Kelly Park near Apopka, Florida

Distribution ⁷

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.

Ecology ⁷

Liriodendron tulipifera is generally considered to be a shade-intolerant species that is most commonly associated with the first century of forest succession. In Appalachian forests, it is a dominant species during the 50–150 years of succession, but is absent or rare in stands of trees 500 years or older. On mesic, fertile soils, it often forms pure or nearly pure stands. It can and does persist in older forests when there is sufficient disturbance to generate large enough gaps for regeneration. Individual trees have been known to live for up to around 500 years.

All young tulip trees and most mature specimens are intolerant of prolonged inundation; however, a coastal plain swamp ecotype in the southeastern United States is relatively flood-tolerant. This ecotype is recognized by its blunt-lobed leaves, which may have a red tint. Liriodendron tulipifera produces a large amount of seed, which is dispersed by wind. The seeds typically travel a distance equal to 4–5 times the height of the tree, and remain viable for 4–7 years. The seeds are not one of the most important food sources for wildlife, but they are eaten by a number of birds and mammals.

Vines, especially wild grapevines, are known to be extremely damaging to young trees of this species. Vines are damaging both due to blocking out solar radiation, and increasing weight on limbs which can lead to bending of the trunk and/or breaking of limbs.

Taxonomy and naming ⁷

Originally described by Linnaeus, Liriodendron tulipifera is one of two species (see also L.chinense) in the genus Liriodendron in the magnolia family. The name Liriodendron is Greek for "lily tree". It is also called the tuliptree Magnolia, or sometimes, by the lumber industry, as the tulip poplar or yellow poplar. However, it is not closely related to true lilies, tulips or poplars.

The tulip tree has impressed itself upon popular attention in many ways, and consequently has many common names. The tree's traditional name in the Miami-Illinois language is "oonseentia". Native Americans so habitually made their dugout canoes of its trunk that the early settlers west of the Appalachian Mountains called it Canoewood. The color of its wood gives it the name Whitewood. In areas near the Mississippi River it is called a poplar largely because of the fluttering habits of its leaves, in which it resembles trees of that genus. It is sometimes called "fiddle tree," because its peculiar leaves, with their arched bases and in-cut sides, suggest the violin shape. The external resemblance of its flowers to tulips named it the Tulip-tree. In their internal structure, however, they are quite different. Instead of the triple arrangements of stamens and pistil parts, they have indefinite numbers arranged in spirals.

Sources and Credits

(c) Aydin Ã–rstan, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-ND), http://www.flickr.com/photos/23594521@N00/2497130069
(c) Andreas Rockstein, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), https://www.flickr.com/photos/74738817@N07/31428192682/
(c) H. Zell, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Liriodendron_tulipifera_002.JPG
(c) Didier Descouens, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Liriodendron_tulipifera_MHNT.BOT.2004.0.jpg
Adapted by bkmertz from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liriodendron_tulipifera
(c) bkmertz, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)
(c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liriodendron_tulipifera

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Tulip Tree

Summary 5

At the Garden 6

Description 7

Distribution 7

Ecology 7

Taxonomy and naming 7