Tulip poplar is native, grand and medicinal
Ask Ken ...
Q. We have a tree in our yard that we have been unable to identify. It blooms with yellow flowers yearly, but only for a day or two, then they fade and drop off. The trunk has a blotchy appearance, as you see in this slightly blurry photograph. Can you help us identify this tree?
And in response to your initial reply email asking about the origin of the tree — it is native. When we purchased our new home in Suffolk, the lot was cleared back to this tree line, and before that, it was virgin forest on the shore of Lake Meade.
It is 40 feet high, and 4 to 5 inches in diameter.
— Roger Gossett, Suffolk
A. Your reply that the tree is native, and also a slightly better photograph, were helpful. From the initial photo, I could not get a good look at the leaf shape or the bloom. Your confirmation that this is native, and a bit better photo, has sealed the deal. Coincidentally, there just happens to be one of these in my neighbor’s backyard and it was blooming a few weeks back. And it is a native tree I was accustomed to seeing in the forests of eastern North Carolina, where I grew up. The distinctive flowers and leaves made it one of the first trees I learned.
This magnificent, attractive tree is Liriodendron tulipifera, commonly known as the tulip tree or tulip poplar. It is a member of the Magnoliaceae. It is native to the eastern United States, and is hardy to Zone 5.
The large, deciduous tree easily reaches 70 feet, and, more commonly much higher. One such tulip tree in North Carolina’s Smoky Mountains National Park holds the record as the tallest known native hardwood tree in temperate North America at 191.9 feet tall. It tends to have a very straight trunk and often lacks lower branches for quite a distance up the trunk in older specimens. So beware, this tree will eventually require a lot of space in the landscape.
The tree has distinctive fourlobed leaves and yellow-green tulip-shaped flowers. The base of the corolla is orange. It blooms May to June and the fruit is a cone-shaped aggregate fruit (like magnolia).
It can put on an awesome display of fall foliage.
By coincidence, I just recently read an article in Smithsonian Magazine that mentions the tulip poplar.
During the Civil War, the
Union blockade of Confederate ports resulted in a shortage of conventional medicines used to treat the high rate of infections suffered by Confederate soldiers. Life-threatening infections and battlefield amputations were commonplace. Doctors looked to traditional plant remedies as alternatives.
During the early part of the war, the Confederate surgeon general assigned Dr. Francis Porcher, a Charleston physician and botanist, the task of preparing a treatise on the indigenous plants of the South for the Army.
Dr. Porcher had begun the war as a surgeon assigned to a South Carolina unit, but was transferred to the Naval Hospital in Norfolk and later to Petersburg. After receiving his assignment, he then drew on the traditional folk knowledge of Southerners, Native Americans and Africans to write “Resources of The Southern Fields and Forests” in 1863.
This publication identified 37 plants species that could be used to fight infections. It was adapted to serve as a field guide on native plants for battlefield physicians.
Recently, in a new study published in Scientific Reports, Emory School of Medicine researchers tested the antiseptic properties of three plants cited by Dr. Porcher — white oak, devil’s walking stick and tulip popular.
Extracts from various parts of the plant’s were tested on three different bacteria (all three exhibit multi-drug resistance), commonly associated with wound infections. In short, researchers confirmed that while not killing the bacteria, all three nevertheless exhibited antibacterial properties.
According to the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention, antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest public health challenges of our time, resulting in more than 2 million infections and 23,000 deaths a year in the United States alone.
The conservation of medicinal plants and the traditional knowledge of their uses is as important today as ever.
And one more thing ...
The local Master Gardener programs provide intensive horticultural training to participants and function to bring an education resource of Virginia Cooperative Extension to the public. These trained volunteers encourage and promote sound horticultural practices in our communities. To learn more, visit VCE Master Gardener Program (bit.ly/ VCEmastergardeners).
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