Tree of the Week: Tulip tree Posted on August 16th
Good morning. I was traveling a week ago, sans laptop, and neglected to post Pieter Severynen’s Tree of the Week. I hope you will forgive me, and will enjoy this week’s installment of the longest-running feature on L.A. Land.
Tulip Tree – Liriodendron tulipifera
The tulip tree always stands out from the crowd with its magnificent, tall, statuesque appearance, long branch-free lower trunk, fairly narrow pyramidal crown and unusual leaves and flowers. “Tulip poplar” and “yellow poplar,” its common names, are somewhat confusing since it is not a poplar tree, while “tulip tree” is also used as a common name for the saucer magnolia, Magnolia x soulangeana, and “African Tulip Tree” is the name for Spathodea campanulata. Other common names for this tree are canoe wood, white wood and saddle leaf tree. The tulip tree is the state tree for Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina.
Native to the Eastern U.S., where it may reach up to 200 feet high and 300 years old, the tulip tree loves rich, deep, moist, slightly acidic soil, and a year-round supply of water. It is not drought tolerant. Here it thrives in lawns and can grow fast to 80 feet tall and 40 feet wide. The trunk is straight and columnar with a deeply furrowed bark; competing trunks seldom appear. Branches are spreading and rising. The lush, shiny green, 4- to 8-inch-long leaves are deciduous, four-lobed, with a truncated top, looking either sheared off or shaped like a saddle, depending on your point of view. Most years the leaves turn yellow in fall. The greenish-yellow 2-inch-wide flowers show an orange ring at the base; they have a slight cucumber smell and they may not appear until the tree is 12-15 years old. The tree depends on insect pollination, so one would expect to find bright flowers advertising their sexual purpose; but curiously enough, the flowers are almost hidden behind the foliage. Still, the tree is a good source of honey. Small hard brown fruits follow the flowers. Fleshy roots are shallow and wide spreading, needing a lot of room. Although few pests bother the tree, aphids and the black sooty mold that may grow on their “honeydew’”excretion may become a nuisance.
Available varieties include “Arnold” or “Fastigiata” which grows a little slower, becomes 10-15 feet wide, and blooms 2-3 years after planting, and ‘Aureomarginatum’ with yellow-edged leaves. The lightweight wood is valuable and sought after for furniture, structural wood, tools and other applications.
Thanks, Pieter.
–Peter Viles
Photo Credit: Pieter Severynen