Liriodendron

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Liriodendron

"Tuliptree" redirects here. For the African tuliptree, see Spathodea campanulata.

Liriodendron is a genus of two species of tree in the Magnoliaceae

Magnoliaceae

The Magnoliaceae, or Magnolia Family, is a Angiosperm family in the order Magnoliales. It consists of two subfamilies:*Magnolioideae, of which Magnolia is the most well-known genus....
family, known under the common name Tulip tree. Liriodendron tulipifera
Liriodendron tulipifera

Liriodendron tulipifera, commonly known as the American tulip tree, tulip poplar or yellow poplar, is the Western Hemisphere representative of the two-species Liriodendron genus and the tallest eastern hardwood....
is native to eastern North America

North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
, while Liriodendron chinense
Liriodendron chinense

Liriodendron chinense, the Chinese tulip tree, is Asia's native species in the Liriodendron genus. This native of central and southern China grows in the provinces of Anhui, Guangxi, Jiangsu, Fujian, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Zhejiang, Sichuan and Yunnan, and also locally in northern Vietnam....
is native to China

China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
and Vietnam

Vietnam

Vietnam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam , is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by People's Republic of China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea to the east....
. Both species are large deciduous

Deciduous

Deciduous means falling off at maturity or tending to fall off and is typically used in reference to trees or shrubs that lose their leaves seasonally and to the shedding of other plant structures such as petals after flowering or fruit when ripe....
tree

TREE

TREE was a Boston hardcore punk band formed in the summer of 1990. They were active in the Boston music scene until disbanding in 2002....
s. Various extinct species have been described from the fossil record.

tuliptree is sometimes called "tulip poplar" or "yellow poplar

Poplar

Populus is a genus of between 25?35 species of deciduous flowering plants in the family Salicaceae, native to most of the Northern Hemisphere....
" although unrelated to the genus Populus.

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Encyclopedia

"Tuliptree" redirects here. For the African tuliptree, see Spathodea campanulata.

Liriodendron is a genus of two species of tree in the Magnoliaceae

Magnoliaceae

North America

China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
and Vietnam

Vietnam

Deciduous

TREE

Description

The tuliptree is sometimes called "tulip poplar" or "yellow poplar

Poplar

Populus is a genus of between 25?35 species of deciduous flowering plants in the family Salicaceae, native to most of the Northern Hemisphere....
" although unrelated to the genus Populus. The tree is also called canoewood, saddle leaf tree and white wood. The Onondaga tribe calls it Ko-yen-ta-ka-ah-tas (the white tree).

Liriodendron are easily recognized by their leaves

Leaf

In botany, a leaf is an above-ground plant Organ specialized for photosynthesis. For this purpose, a leaf is typically flat and thin, to expose the cells containing chloroplast to light over a broad area, and to allow light to penetrate fully into the tissues....
, which are distinct, having four lobes in most cases and a cross-cut notched or straight apex. Leaf size varies from 8-22 cm long and 6-25 cm wide.

Leaves are slightly larger in L. chinense but with considerable overlap between the species; the petiole

Petiole (botany)

In botany, the petiole is the small stalk attaching the leaf blade to the Plant stem. The petiole usually has the same internal structure as the stem....
is 4-18 cm long. Leaves on young trees tend to be more deeply lobed and larger size than those on mature trees. In autumn the leaves turn yellow, or yellow and brown. Both species grow rapidly in rich moist soils of temperate climates. They hybridize easily and the progeny often grow faster than either parent.

Flower

Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproduction structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to mediate the union of male sperm with female ovum in order to produce seeds....
s are 3-10 cm in diameter and have nine tepal

Tepal

Tepals are elements of the perianth, or outer part of a flower, which include the petals or sepals. The term tepal is usually used when all segments of the perianth are of similar shape and color, or undifferentiated....
s, three short outer sepals and six inner petals, yellow-green with an orange flare at the base. They are superficially similar to a tulip

Tulip

Tulipa, commonly called tulip, is a genus of about 150 species of bulbous flowering plants in the family Liliaceae. The native range of the species includes southern Europe, north Africa, and Asia from Anatolia and Iran in the west to northeast of China....
in shape, hence the tree's name. Flowers of L. tulipifera have a faint cucumber odor. The stamen

Stamen

The stamen is the male organ of a flower. Each stamen generally has a stalk called the filament , and, on top of the filament, an anther , and pollen sacs, called sporangium....
s and pistils are arranged spirally around a central spike or gynaecium; the stamens fall off, and the pistils become the samara

Samara (fruit)

A samara is a type of fruit in which a flattened wing of fibrous, papery tissue develops from the ovary wall. A samara is a simple dry fruit and indehiscent ....
s. The fruit

Fruit

The term fruit has different meanings dependent on context, and the term is not synonymous in food preparation and biology. In botany, which is the scientific study of plants, fruits are the ripened Ovary of flowering plants....
is a cone-like aggregate of samaras 4-9 cm long, each of which has a roughly tetrahedral seed with one edge attached to the central conical spike and the other edge attached to the wing.

Distribution

Liriodendron are also easily recognized by their general shape, with the higher branches sweeping together in one direction, and they are also recognizable by their height, as the taller ones usually protrude above the canopy of oaks, maples, and other trees -- more markedly with the American species. Appalachian cove forests often contain several tuliptrees of height and girth not seen in other species of eastern hardwood.

In the Appalachian cove forests, trees 150 to 165 feet in height are common, and trees from 166 to nearly 180 feet are also found. More Liriodendron over 170 feet in height have been measured by the Eastern Native Tree Society

Eastern Native Tree Society

Eastern Native Tree Society : A not-for-profit Internet interest group formally established in 1996 to celebrate trees in the arts, science, mythology, medicine, and related areas....
than for any other eastern species. The current height champion is approximately 178.5 feet in height and grows along Baxter Creek in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The tallest tuliptrees on record probably reached 190 feet in height, taller than any other eastern hardwood. Today the tuliptree is rivaled in eastern forests only by white pine, loblolly pine, and eastern hemlock. There are reports of tuliptrees over 200 feet in height, but none of the measurements have been confirmed by the Eastern Native Tree Society. Most reflect measurement errors attributable to not accurately locating the highest crown point relative to the base of the tree - a common error made by the users employing only clinometers/hypsometers when measuring height.

Maximum circumferences for the species are between 24 and 30 feet at breast height, although a few historical specimens may have been slightly larger. Today, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park has the greatest population of tuliptrees 20-feet and over in circumference. The largest volume tuliptree known anywhere is the Sag Branch Giant which has a trunk and limb volume approaching 4,000 cubic feet.

Liriodendron has been reported as fossils from the late Cretaceous

Cretaceous

The Cretaceous , usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide, is a geologic period from circa to million years ago . In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows on the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period....
and early Tertiary

Tertiary

The Tertiary is a a term for a Geologic time scale#Terminology 65 million to 1.8 million years ago. The Tertiary covered the time span between the superseded Secondary period and an out-of-date definition of the Neogene#Controversy....
of North America and central Asia. It is known widely as Tertiary

Tertiary

Fossil

Fossils are the preserved remains or trace fossil of animals, plants, and other organisms from the remote past. The totality of fossils, both discovered and undiscovered, and their placement in fossiliferous Rock formations and sedimentary rock layers is known as the fossil record....
s in Europe and well outside its natural range in Asia and North America, showing a once circumpolar

Circumpolar

The term circumpolar may refer to:* circumpolar navigation: to travel the world "vertically" traversing both of the poles* the Antarctic Circumpolar Current...
distribution. Like many "Arcto-Tertiary"

Arcto-Tertiary Geoflora

The Arcto-Tertiary Geoflora is a hypothesized floral assemblage that once covered the Northern Hemisphere, from roughly the late Mesozoic to mid Cenozoic Eras....
genera, Liriodendron apparently became extinct in Europe

Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
due to large-scale glaciation and aridity of climate during glacial phases.

Cultivation and use

Liriodendron sp. prefer a temperate

Temperate

In geography, temperate or tepid latitudes of the globe lie between the tropics and the polar circles. The changes in these regions between summer and winter are generally mild, rather than extreme hot or cold....
climate, sun or part shade and deep, fertile

Fertile

Fertile is the ability organisms, including people or animals, to produce healthy offspring.Fertile may also refer to:*Fertile material, nuclides which generally themselves do not undergo induced fission, but from which fissile material can be generated...
, well drained and slightly acidic soil

Soil

Soil is the naturally occurring, unconsolidated or loose covering on the Earth's surface. Soil is composed of particles of broken rock that have been altered by chemical and environmental processes including weathering and erosion....
. Propagation is via seed or grafting

Grafting

Grafting is a method of asexual plant propagation widely used in agriculture and horticulture where the tissues of one plant are encouraged to fuse with those of another....
. Plants grown from seed may take more than eight years to flower. Grafted plants will flower earlier depending on the age of the scion

Scion

Scion may refer to:* A kinship, a son or daughter*In grafting, the scion is a detached shoot or twig containing buds from a woody plant which is grafted onto the stock....
plant.

North American Tulipwood

Tulipwood

Most commonly, Tulipwood is the yellowish greenish wood yielded from the Liriodendron tulipifera, found on the Eastern side of North America and also in some parts of China....
is fine grained and stable. It is easy to work and commonly used for cabinet and furniture framing, i.e. internal structural members and sub-surfaces for veneering. Additionally, much inexpensive furniture, described for sales purposes simply as 'hardwood', is in fact primarily stained poplar. In the literature of American furniture manufacturers from the first half of the 20th century, it is often referred to as 'gum wood'. The wood is only moderately rot resistant, and is not commonly used in shipbuilding, but has found some recent use in light craft construction. The wood is readily available and when air dried has a density of approximately 24 pounds per cubic foot.

The name canoewood probably refers to the tree's use for construction of dugout canoes by Eastern Native Americans, for which its fine grain and large trunk size is eminently suited.

Tuliptree leaves are eaten by the caterpillar

Caterpillar

Caterpillars are the larval form of a member of the order Lepidoptera . They are mostly phytophagous in food habit, with some species being entomophagous....
s of some Lepidoptera

Lepidoptera

Lepidoptera is an order of insect that includes moths and butterfly. It is one of the most speciose orders in the class Insecta, encompassing moths and the three superfamilies of butterfly, skipper , and Hedylidae....
, for example the Eastern tiger swallowtail

Eastern tiger swallowtail

The Eastern tiger swallowtail, Papilio glaucus, is a large swallowtail butterfly. It is found in the Eastern United States, as far north as southern Vermont, and as far West as extreme Eastern Colorado....
(Papilio glaucus).

Species and cultivars

Liriodendron tulipifera
Liriodendron tulipifera

Liriodendron tulipifera, commonly known as the American tulip tree, tulip poplar or yellow poplar, is the Western Hemisphere representative of the two-species Liriodendron genus and the tallest eastern hardwood....

Liriodendron chinense
Liriodendron chinense

Liriodendron chinense, the Chinese tulip tree, is Asia's native species in the Liriodendron genus. This native of central and southern China grows in the provinces of Anhui, Guangxi, Jiangsu, Fujian, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Zhejiang, Sichuan and Yunnan, and also locally in northern Vietnam....

Liriodendron 'Chapel Hill' and 'Doc Deforce's Delight' are hybrids of the above two species
L. tulipifera 'Ardis' is a small-leaf, compact cultivar that is rarely seen
L. tulipifera 'Aureomarginatum' is variegated with yellow-margined leaves
L. tulipifera 'Fastigiatum' grows with an erect or columnar habit (fastigiate)
L. tulipifera 'Glen Gold' bears yellow-gold colored leaves
L. tulipifera 'Mediopictum' is a variegated cultivar with gold-centered leaves
tulip

Bibliography External links

Hunt, D. (ed). 1998. Magnolias and their allies. International Dendrology Society & Magnolia Society. (ISBN 0-9517234-8-0)
Parks, C.R., Wendel, J.F., Sewell, M.M., & Qiu, Y.-L. (1994). The significance of allozyme variation and introgression in the Liriodendron tulipifera complex (Magnoliaceae). Amer. J. Bot. 81 (7): 878-889
Parks, C.R., Miller, N.G., Wendel, J.F. and McDougal, K.M. (1983). Genetic diversity within the genus Liriodendron (Magnoliaceae). Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 70 (4): 658-666
Collingwood, G.H., Brush, W.D. (1984) Knowing your trees. American Forestry Association. (L.O.C. card no. 78-52994):286-287
(site currently down; see )
Botanicas Trees & Shrubs, Random House, Sydney, 2005