Tulip Poplar is a gloriously beautiful, tall, straight-trunked tree competing against Sycamore and White Pine as the tallest trees of the East.
It has adorable leaves that turn golden in the fall, and like others in the Magnolia family Tulip Poplar's canopy in spring is filled with large, bright flowers--although so far up in the tree you might not see them.
Pollinators love the large, tulip-like blooms, and Tulip Poplar also is a larval host to the Spicebush Swallowtail, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Tuliptree Silkmoth and various other butterflies and moth species.
Tulip Poplar is a favorite nesting tree for birds, and the flowers also attract hummingbirds.
Tulip Poplar does well in tight spaces, and you'll often see a grouping of four to six of these trees growing tightly together.
Fun fact: The biggest Tulip Poplar is 198 feet tall and 12 feet in diameter.
Trunk photo by Evelyn Simak
Tulip Poplar
- Latin: Liriodendron tulipifera
- Pollinator value: Very High
- Mature height: 70-90 feet
- Light: Full sun
- Soil: Medium
- Flower: Yellow-orange, tulip-shaped, May-June
- Foliage: Deciduous, gold fall, looks like frog's webbed foot
- Landscape: Garden, lawn, specimen.
- More information and native range here