Tulip Tree

This excellent ornamental tree grows 57m and form a high multiple crown, and inferior and very heavy branches. The brown-orange bark of the adult tree is intensely fissured, with frequent burs. In America it is an important wooden tree, with several commercial names: liriodendron, tulip poplar and yellow poplar; it produces a yellow or brown-yellowish wood, soft and uniform grain highly appreciated for several uses including turnery, cabinetwork, inlaying and piano building.

In this tree everything seem different: the flattened buds, of 1 cm long, with curved apex, are brown with lilac patches; the saddle-shaped leaves, with four lobes and truncated apex, of 10-15 x 15-20 cm, with a long petiole: in autumn they are bright golden and sometimes they turn brown. The flowers appear at the beginning of summer, first with a tulip shape, then they open; they have six petals of 4-5cm long, light green-yellowish with orange patches near the base and numerous yellow pulpy stamen. The fruit is a pointed erect, 4-5 cm long, of paper texture; with long and narrow winged seeds. Unfortunately, during the first 15 or 20 years it does not flower.

Encyclopedia BLUME, Trees, wood and forests of the world, H. Edlin/M.Nimmo, page 161.