Tulip-Tree - Liriodendron tulipifera
Magnoliaceae -- Magnolia family
Also commonly called Yellow Poplar
Height: up to 200 feet / USDA Hardiness Zones: 4-8.

 

 
Tulip-Tree

Tulip-tree, also commonly known as yellow poplar, tulip-poplar, white-poplar, and whitewood, is one of the most attractive and tallest of eastern hardwoods. It is fast growing and may reach 300 years of age on deep, rich, well-drained soils of forest coves and lower mountain slopes. The wood has high commercial value because of its versatility and as a substitute for increasingly scarce softwoods in furniture and framing construction. Yellow-poplar is also valued as a honey tree, a source of wildlife food, and a shade tree for large areas.

Tulip tree thrives on many soil types with various physical properties, chemical composition, and parent material. Within the major portion of the range of tulip tree, these soils fall in soil orders Inceptisols and Ultisols. Exceptionally good growth has been observed on alluvial soils bordering streams, on loam soils of mountain coves, on talus slopes below cliffs and bluffs, and on well-watered, gravelly soils. In general, where yellow-poplar grows naturally and well, the soils are moderately moist, well drained, and loose textured; it rarely does well in very wet or very dry situations.

 

Studies in locations as varied as the Coastal Plain of New Jersey, the Central States, the Great Appalachian Valley, the Carolina and Virginia Piedmonts, the Cumberland Plateau, and the mountains of north Georgia have isolated soil features that measure effective rooting depth and moisture-supplying capacity as the most important determinants of growth. These variables have been expressed in quantitative terms such as relative content of sand, silt, and clay; depth of humus accumulation; organic matter content of different horizons of the soil profile; percent moisture retention; available water; and depth to impermeable layers.

The same studies also stressed that topographic features plus latitude and elevation, which partially determine the amount of incoming solar radiation and rate of evaporation or otherwise influence the moisture supplying capacity of soil, are important variables in assessing site suitability for tulip tree growth. The best growth usually occurs on north and east aspects, on lower slopes, in sheltered coves, and on gentle, concave slopes.

 


Tulip-tree Bark

 

These Tulip Trees are well over 100 feet tall.