Recommended Indigenous Trees Feature: Tulip Poplar

Scroll

The next in our series of trees we recommend for use in local landscaping is the towering Tulip Poplar!  The experts at Knutsen Landscaping have compiled a list of trees indigenous to our region in Pennsylvania.

Tulip Poplar Liriodendron tulipifera

  • Pioneers used tulip poplar to make houses, barns, and canoes
  • Most commonly used today in cabinet making
  • Also used for medicinal purposes—like teas and ointments
  • State tree of Tennessee, Kentucky, and Indiana
  • Nicknamed the “fiddle tree” because of it’s peculiar shaped leaves that resemble small violins
  • It is actually a member of the magnolia family, not the poplar family
  • Won’t bloom tulips for the first 15 years of it’s life—the flowers are usually a light green or yellow color
  • Average lifespan:200-250, but can live much longer under the right conditions
  • Tallest of the North American hardwood trees…between 100 and 150 feet tall!
  • Trunks can grow 50 feet high without a single branch
  • Produces a honey used primarily by bakers