Beautiful yellow and white flowers often appear on our pathways in April through June. These were dropped from a nearby tulip tree, named Liriodendron tulipifera for its tulip-shaped flowers.
The flowers appear before the leaves, high in the canopy, only for two to six weeks. During that time the plant makes large quantities of nectar for hummingbirds, beetles, honeybees and bumblebees. The flowers are followed by narrow, upright cone-shaped fruit clusters of numerous, winged samaras. These dry fruits are often seen below the trees in early winter, and the seeds are eaten by squirrels, rabbits, mice and songbirds. So these tall trees feed insects in the spring and birds and small mammals in fall and winter.
The tulip tree is one of the host plants for the tiger swallowtail butterfly — it reproduces two or three times in our area, which is why we see fresh specimens in early spring. Each female will lay a single egg on host plant leaves that are eaten by caterpillars as they develop. Their soft bodies are filled with fat and protein and are highly desirable as food for nesting birds. The caterpillars overwinter as chrysalids, dropping to the ground below. A groundcover, not a lawn, is a good home for them.
The tallest tree in the forest is often the tulip tree, protruding over the canopy of other trees. It grows fast, usually to over 100 feet tall with a trunk diameter of 2-3 feet, and may become unsuitable for a small yard. The largest trees of this species are in rich woods such as in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, with trees over 20 feet in circumference. Tulip trees in Shenandoah National Park are over 120 feet tall with diameters of over 5 feet.
The leaves look like no other, with an unusual square shape and four shallow lobes. Bright green in the spring, the leaves are a rich gold in autumn. A tulip tree is easy to recognize because no other broad-leaved tree in our area has a gray, grooved trunk without lower branches. It is one of the largest hardwoods in the east, commonly reaching 80-100 feet with a 2-5-foot trunk diameter. While preferring moist, well-drained soils and rich woods, it makes a very desirable street, shade or ornamental tree in large spaces. Tulip trees range throughout eastern U.S. to the Mississippi River, and grows wild in every county in Virginia.
The Rev. John Clayton observed: “a vast large tree extraordinary specious, bearing flowers about April much like Tulips, its leaves are large, smooth & well shaped, which together with the flowers, render the tree exceedingly beautiful to behold.”
In the 1600s, few plants were available in London nurseries, and gardeners were sent abroad on plant-buying trips. In 1637, John Tradescant The Younger voyaged to Virginia and returned with 200 specimens, including tulip trees and Bald cypress. As early American botanists John Bartram, Mark Catesby and John Clayton collected and identified the flora of eastern North America, a vigorous business developed, supplying nurseries in London with American species.
Tulip trees grow rapidly and are one of the chief commercial hardwoods — the wood is straight-grained, fine, soft, resistant to splitting and easily worked, and is used for furniture, musical instruments, boats and interiors. With its long, straight trunk, the tulip tree was a favorite of the Native Americans for their dugout canoes. It is often known as tulip poplar and yellow poplar, and has been referred to as simply “poplar,” but this name properly belongs to cottonwoods and their relatives in the willow family.
Helen Hamilton is past president of the John Clayton chapter of the Virginia Native Plant Society.
