Yellow-poplar or tuliptree (Liriodendron tulipifera): what the agencies record

This page reports what US federal publications say about one tree. It does not identify trees from descriptions or photos and does not say what should be done with any tree. The family overview, tree species in the agency records, explains the sources and holds the comparison table.

At a glance

Item	What the source records
Scientific name	Liriodendron tulipifera L., magnolia family
Other names	Tuliptree, tulip-poplar, white-poplar and whitewood (Silvics). USDA PLANTS lists tuliptree, with tulip poplar and yellow poplar as other common names.
Native status, USDA PLANTS	Native in Canada and in the lower 48 states
Size at maturity, Silvics	Usually 30.5 to 45.7 m (100 to 150 ft) tall, with a straight trunk 0.6 to 1.5 m (2 to 5 ft) in diameter; on the best sites old-growth trees may be nearly 61 m (200 ft) tall
Age, Silvics	Natural death usually at about 200 to 250 years, and some trees may live up to 300 years
Green weight of the wood, NRS-38	49 lb per cubic foot, without bark

Native range

The Silvics of North America handbook (Agriculture Handbook 654, 1990) says yellow-poplar grows throughout the eastern United States from southern New England west through southern Ontario and Michigan, south to Louisiana, then east to north-central Florida. It is most abundant and reaches its largest size in the valley of the Ohio River and on the mountain slopes of North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky and West Virginia. The handbook says the Appalachian Mountains and adjacent Piedmont, running south from Pennsylvania to Georgia, held 75 percent of all yellow-poplar growing stock in 1974. It describes the tree as one of the most attractive and tallest of eastern hardwoods, fast growing, and valued as a honey tree, a source of wildlife food and a shade tree.

Flowers

Silvics describes a single perfect flower 4 to 5 cm (1.5 to 2 in) wide, with six petals that vary in color from light yellowish green at the margin to a deep orange band. The flowering period of a tree varies from 2 to 6 weeks, and the receptive period of each flower is normally only 12 to 24 daylight hours. The handbook names flies, beetles, honey bees and bumble bees, in decreasing order of abundance, as insects seen on opened flowers.

Roots

The handbook describes a rapidly growing and deeply penetrating juvenile taproot, together with many strongly developed and wide-spreading lateral roots. It calls this a flexible rooting habit, even in the juvenile stage.

Wood

The Wood Handbook (FPL-GTR-282, 2021) says yellow-poplar sapwood is white and frequently several centimeters wide, and the heartwood is yellowish brown, sometimes streaked with purple, green, black, blue or red. It says these colorations do not affect the physical properties of the wood. It describes the grain as generally straight and the texture as fairly uniform; slow-grown wood is moderately light in weight, moderately low in bending strength, moderately soft and moderately low in shock resistance, and shrinkage when dried from green is moderately high, but the wood is not difficult to dry and is stable after drying.

Wood Handbook figure	Green	At 12% moisture content
Specific gravity (Table 5-3b)	0.40	0.42
Modulus of rupture, lbf per square inch (Table 5-3b)	6,000	10,100
Side hardness, lbf (Table 5-3b)	440	540

The green weight of the wood is in the NRS-38 table, the same figure used in the log weight calculator.

Pests and diseases the handbook names

Silvics (1990) says yellow-poplar is unusually free from damage by pests compared with many other commercially important species, and that of more than 30 insect species that attack it only 4 are considered to have significant economic impact.

Insects. The tuliptree scale, which the handbook says removes large quantities of phloem sap; the yellow-poplar weevil, which feeds on buds and foliage; the root-collar borer, which attacks the phloem at the base of the tree; and the Columbian timber beetle, whose burrows leave a defect called "calico poplar".
Decay. Armillaria mellea, which it calls probably the most common decay associated with basal wounding and decaying stumps, and a white heartwood rot from Collybia velutipes often associated with top breakage and dying limbs.
Cankers. Species of Nectria; Fusarium solani, isolated from large trees in Ohio; and a dieback with stem canker in saplings associated with a Myxosporium fungus. The handbook says canker-forming diseases appear to be confined to, or most severe on, trees low in vigor because of drought, poor site or competition.
Nursery. A root rot from Cylindrocladium scoparium.
Log stain. Wood-staining fungi on logs cut in warmer seasons, the most common rapid-staining species being Ceratocystis pluriannulata.

The handbook also says seedlings and saplings have thin bark and are extremely susceptible to fire damage, and that the species becomes extremely fire resistant once the bark is thick enough to insulate the cambium. The guide on reporting a pest in the United States gives the office that takes sightings of regulated pests, and pests and diseases by country sets out which ones agencies regulate. Who may apply pesticides is in pesticide licences by country.