Liriodendron tulipifera
Sponsor
Kindly sponsored by
The Samuel Storey Family Charitable Trust
Credits
Owen Johnson (2018)
Recommended citation
Johnson, O. (2018), 'Liriodendron tulipifera' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Common Names
- (American) Tulip Tree
- Tulip Poplar
- Yellow Poplar
Synonyms
- Tulipifera liriodendron Mill.
Infraspecifics
Other taxa in genus
Tree to 55 m × 3 m dbh. Bark grey, fissured after about 25 years; craggy, browner, irregularly scaling ridges in old age. Crown usually taller than wide; trunk in the wild long and straight. Petiole 4–16 cm. Leaves usually flushing yellow-green, 5–15 × 5–18 cm, with (0)1–(5) pair(s) of shallow, forward-pointing lobes. Flowers in late spring (but from late January in some trees from central Florida); tepals 4 cm, the inner 6 overlapping to form a cup-shape and greenish-yellow with an orange blaze forming a ring around the flower on both sides. Fruit 7–9 cm; nutlets c. 6 mm, wing c. 4 cm long. (Meyer 1997).
Distribution Canada Ontario United States Eastern and central states from central Florida to Vermont
Habitat Mixed forests, from sea level to 1500 m in the Appalachian Mountains.
USDA Hardiness Zone 4-5
RHS Hardiness Rating H7
Awards AGM
Conservation status Least concern (LC)
The American Tulip Tree is a popular plant for large gardens and parks around the temperate world: few trees so large and robust are so extravagantly ornamental. The leaves flutter on their long stalks as if to draw attention to their special shape, and the American name ‘Tulip Poplar’ reminds us of this, and of the tree’s timber qualities and rapid growth in the deep moist soils which it likes best. On poor dry or chalky soils it will survive rather than flourish. In Europe, it grows as far north as the Arboretum Mustila in Finland (Wikipedia 2018), but even in southern England only a few, younger specimens show the long, straight bole characteristic of the tree thriving in its native forests.
This must have been among the first American trees grown in England, though the details are lost; a tree at Waltham Abbey in Essex was measured at 29 m × 86 cm dbh in 1745 by Peter Collinson (Loudon 1843), and cannot have been much less than a hundred years old. The oldest surviving tree in Europe is probably one at Esher Place in Surrey whose dbh of 3.05 m in 2018 compares well with the largest wild trees, though a narrow fork from 2 m does inflate this; it is supposed to have been a gift from Bishop Henry Compton in the 1680s, an origin that its slow steady growth since 1906 tends to endorse (Tree Register 2018). The Welsh champion, on the Golden Grove estate in Carmarthenshire, has a very similar habit and by 2018 its dbh was 2.94 m; it was planted around 1767 (Loudon 1838).
The Tulip Tree copes better in the cool, Atlantic parts of Britain and Ireland than most broadleaves from the eastern United States, though it is clearly happiest in the warmer south and east. Multi-stemmed trees of 3.06 m dbh at 0.5 m grow as far northwest as at Molenan House in County Down, and of 2.43 m dbh at 0.5 m at Glenstal Abbey in County Limerick; a heavily burred tree planted around 1742 at The Hirsel (Scottish Borders) was 2.36 m dbh in 2003. A shapely tree, 29m tall, grows in woodland shelter at Arduaine on the Argyllshire coast, planted by James Arthur Campbell in the years after 1898. 24 trees measured in the UK and Ireland now exceed 2 m dbh, with about 400 of at least 1 m dbh; 27 exceeding 30 m in height. (Tree Register 2018).
In its native forests, Tulip Tree is the tallest broadleaf east of the Rocky Mountains, with a champion of 58.5 m climbed in 2011 in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, North Carolina (Burnett 2012). Magnificent trees of 50 m tall grow in the native woodland area at Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania (monumentaltrees.com 2018) and one of the most beautiful of any ornamental plantings is at nearby Swarthmore College, where the straight stems of Liriodendron rise from the stone and grass tiers of the amphitheatre used for college graduation ceremonies. Its yellow to dark brown timber, marketed as ‘Yellow Poplar’ and is easily worked, is valued for many purposes (Elias 1980).
The Tulip Tree is already among the tallest broadleaves in some warmer parts of Europe, with trees of 49.6 m recorded both at Villa Besana, Sirtori, near Milan, Italy in 2016, and at Sarrot near Pau in southwest France in 2018 (monumentaltrees.com 2018). Another of 46.4 m is the tallest tree in the National Botanic Garden at Meise in Belgium in 2016 (monumentaltrees.com 2018). A tree at Le Baraille in Albine, southern France, has a long hollowing bole with a dbh of 2.67 m in 2015 (monumentaltrees.com 2018), almost as impressive as any in the wild.
A sapling self-sown in a sandy walk at Longleat, Wiltshire around 1900 was noted by A. C. Forbes (Elwes & Henry 1906–1913); another seedling currently grows in the crook of a dead beech in Roath Park, Cardiff. It naturalises more readily in France (La Villette 2018).
Several variants have been named from the wild population with slightly differing leaf shapes and flower colours. More distinctive but not yet described scientifically is a coastal ecotype from the Carolinas, which is adapted to highly acid waterlogged conditions and can grow pneumatophores like a Taxodium. Its leaves have blunt lobes and often show a reddish cast on scarlet petioles (Parks et al. 1994). Another ecotype from east central Florida near Orlando has rounded lobing and is semi-evergreen; its small but brighter yellow flowers are carried from an earlier age and may open in the wild as early as January (Moriaty 2001; Wikipedia 2018).
'Ardis'
‘Ardis’ is the nearest thing to a dwarf Tulip Tree, with small leaves to match at ¼ to ⅓ the normal size; the main advantage is that the flowers (described as normal in size) will often be at head height. It was found by Mrs Ardis Sonneman and grown in her garden at Vandalia, Illinois, and named in 1970 (Hebb 1970). Plants in the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens have reached about 5 m after 30 years (Tree Register 2018), though a 1980s planting at Sandling Park in Kent rapidly reverted. Similar to ‘Compactum’, see below.
'Arnold'
Synonyms / alternative names
Liriodendron tulipifera 'Arnold's Fastigiate'
Propagated from examples of ‘Fastigiatum’ at the Arnold Arboretum in Massachusetts, ‘Arnold’ often seems to show a better central axis than its parent, though this may be due in part to the care taken by the nurseries propagating the tree. Some sources (e.g. Oregon State University 2025) do not consider it worthy of distinction from ‘Fastigiatum’ (and being vegetatively propagated, it is presumably the same genotype) but others suggest it has a neater and tighter habit, and does not grow so large.
'Aureomarginatum'
‘Aureomarginatum’ is one of the most robust and beautiful of variegated trees. The leaf shape is accentuated in spring by a broad, irregular daffodil-yellow margin, which deepens as the summer progresses to a green only slightly paler than that of the leaf’s centre. This fade makes the spring brilliance more breathtaking for its brevity, and allows the tree to grow almost as fast as the type; it seldom reverts, though the old tree at Gunnersbury Park in west London is an exception. The tallest known in Britain, planted in 1906 above the lake at Stourhead in Wiltshire, is one of the largest of variegated trees at 30 m by 2016 (The Tree Register 2018).
This cultivar was raised in Germany around 1865 and quickly distributed through European nurseries. It has been cultivated in North America since before 1891 but never became common here until after 1986 when Monrovia Nursery, California, began to commercialise it (Jacobson 1996) largely under the trade designation MAJESTIC BEAUTY (Dirr 2009). Several lookalike cultivars have been named. In most cases these are nothing more than re-naming events, presumably for commercial gain:
More recently, the superb white-variegated ‘Snowbird’ has been introduced; this is distinct in being white-variegated (not yellow) and is treated separately below.
'Aureum'
Synonyms / alternative names
Liriodendron tulipifera 'Flavum'
A selection with brighter yellow flowers distributed by Mallet Court Nursery (Somerset, UK) until 2007. This variant was first described as ‘Flavum’ by Loudon (Loudon 1838).
'Compactum'
A lesser-known cultivar, half the height and leaf size of the type; the name has probably been used as a catch-all for any form with reduced growth characteristics, such as ‘Ardis’, see above (Dirr 2009). ‘Compactum’ was listed in the 1892 catalogue of Behnsch Nurseries (Beissner, Schelle & Zabel 1903).
'Contortum'
Synonyms / alternative names
Liriodendron tulipifera 'Tortuosum'
A plant named ‘Contortum’ at the Arboretum de Segrez in 1877 (Lavallee 1877) had broad, rather twisted and undulant leaves. At Bicton Park Botanical Gardens in Devon, it has made a neat, domed tree. ‘Crispum’ first described in 1869 (Koch 1869) and growing in the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens in Hampshire and the Bluebell Arboretum in Derbyshire, UK (The Tree Register 2018) is similar if not identical.
Michael Dirr (2009) described ‘Tortuosum’ as a tree supposedly with twisted branches, but says its most conspicuous feature is its contorted leaves; he believes it is the same as ‘Contortum’.
'Crispum'
Synonyms / alternative names
Liriodendron tulipifera 'Roodhaan'
Liriodendron tulipifera 'Roothaan'
This old clone, named by K. Koch in 1869, has deeply divided leaves that also have an irregular, rather undulating leaf surface, giving a distinctive appearance. It has become rare under that name and for a long time has been unfamiliar, although a specimen has grown at Arboretum Trompenburg in Rotterdam since the 1950s. This was propagated by the late Dick van Hoey Smith from a tree growing in a park in Kassel, Germany.
In 1974 a tree, described as a seedling, was found on a French estate by a Dutch dendrologist, Dr. Roothaan, who took it to Arboretum Trompenburg, where it continues to thrive, flowering prolifically each year. It has been propagated and distributed as ‘Roothaan’ (sometimes, as originally treated in TSO until November 2024, erroneously written as ‘Roodhaan’).
More recently the two have been compared at Trompenburg and in nursery production, and Gert Fortgens has reached the conclusion that the two clones are indistinguishable and should both be called ‘Crispum’ (Fortgens 2019).
The flowers have a particularly extensive deep orange mark at their base. It is possible that the now lost Victorian cultivar ‘Rubrum’ (Jager & Beissner 1889) carried flowers of similar colour.
The varietal name obtusilobum was published by Michaux in 1803 for trees like ‘Crispum’ that show blunt leaf-lobing; in the UK BlueBell Nursery (BlueBell Nursery 2018) sells a variant ‘Rotundilobum’ (with flowers described as normal in colour). The latinate name suggests that ‘Rotundilobum’ is an old clone, though if so it was missed by Santamour and McArdle in their 1984 catalogue of cultivars (Santamour & McArdle 1984).
'Edward Gursztyn'
A semi-dwarf form found as a seedling by Gursztyn Nursery, Braniewo, Poland; the original tree is 1.8 m tall and wide after 15 years, with a neat habit. Unlike ‘Ardis’, the leaves are nearly typical in shape and size (Hatch 2015).
'Fastigiatum'
Synonyms / alternative names
Liriodendron tulipifera 'Pyramidalis'
‘Fastigiatum’ is a familiar sport with erect, twisting branches, stylishly slender in youth but broadening untidily in middle age and prone to weak forks at a low height, which probably means that, like most fastigiate trees, it will never prove long lived. Two of the three tallest on record in England were both planted in the latter half of the 20th century; while the tallest of all, at Winkworth Arboretum in Surrey, was 25.3 m tall in 2023 but this tree does not have a known planting date (The Tree Register 2023). There is a remarkable record of a tree to 23.7 m tall (in 1992) at Arduaine, on the cool, wet, west coast of Scotland – a far cry from the warm-summer regions typically associated with good Tulip Trees in Britain (Jacobson 1996).
Careful attention can at least ensure that ‘Fastigiatum’ starts off with the type’s typically straight single bole and there are some good younger street trees in England, usually supplied as tall standards, despite the difficulties inherent in establishing Tulip Trees at this size. There is a (now ragged) avenue of this clone on London Road in Headington, Oxford, which although a good idea has not coped well with the vicissitudes of such a situation. The sport was first catalogued (as ‘Pyramidalis’) at the Arboretum de Segrez in 1877 (Lavallee 1877). It has been in North America since at least 1888 (though not commercialised until about 1927 – Jacobson 1996) but it remains, perhaps, not quite so common in horticulture here as it is in western Europe. The cultivar ‘Arnold’ (q.v.) was propagated from plants of ‘Fastigiatum’ at the Arnold Arboretum and is said to differ in its neater, more compact habit.
'Glen Gold'
Synonyms / alternative names
Liriodendron tulipifera 'Greengold'
‘Glen Gold’, raised in Australia, has uniformly yellow leaves at first, which fade to lime green as the season progresses (Dirr 2009). The leaves are unusually large, which combined with apparently low vigour makes for a rather gawky plant; although it has been sold by UK nurseries for more than a decade, the author has yet to see an established tree. A specimen planted in 1999 in the Bodenham Arboretum in Worcestershire under the name ‘Greengold’ has grown quite vigorously to 11 m (The Tree Register 2008); its unfolding leaves in April are slightly yellowish between the main veins, suggesting that, even if ‘Greengold’ were to have been a misprint for ‘Glen Gold’, some degree of reversion has also occurred.
'Heltorf'
‘Heltorf’ was found near Dusseldorf by J.R.P. Hoey-Smith and planted by him at Arboretum Trompenberg (Santamour & McArdle 1984). Its side lobes are themselves three-lobed, representing an extreme in the natural variation found in this species.
'Integrifolium'
‘Integrifolium’ was described in 1838 (Loudon 1838) as a variant with blunt or rounded lobes, a mutation that is quite frequent among Tulip Trees in the wild and in cultivation, while f. integrifolium was published by Georg Kirchner to describe trees that retain the rounded, scarcely lobed shape of the first true leaves of seedlings. A ninteenth-century planting (now lost) at Kew grown as ‘Integrifolium’ had just the two terminal lobes, making the leaves shield-shaped, and the name is now applied to this form. The sponsorship of this account of Liriodendron by the Samuel Storey Family Charitable Trust in 2017 was inspired by the existence of the British and Irish Champion Liriodendron tulipifera ‘Integrifolium’ at Settrington, which has long been in the Storey family affections. It had a dbh of 0.87 m in 2011 (The Tree Register 2018), and may be from the same source as the tree at Kew mentioned above.
Variants with reduced or blunter lobes are discussed under ‘Crispum’, while the cultivar ‘Ramapoo’ was said by Dirr to be similar (Dirr 2009).
'JFS-Oz'
Synonyms / alternative names
Liriodendron tulipifera EMERALD CITY™
A fastigiate selection, broader than ‘Fastigiatum’ but more shapely, forming a narrowly oval crown on a good stem, and with dark glossy foliage. Raised by J Frank Schmidt in Oregon (Dirr 2009).
'Leucanthum'
A selection with nearly white flowers sold by Booth and Sons to the Bad Muskau Arboretum before 1864 (Petzold & Kirchner 1864).
'Little Volunteer'
‘Little Volunteer’, raised by Alexander Neubauer at his nursery at Belvedere, Tennessee, in 2001 (Dirr 2009), grows slightly more freely than the dwarf Tulip Tree ‘Ardis’ but has a stronger central stem; its leaves are more deeply lobed.
'Mediopictum'
‘Mediopictum’ (also in the catalogue of the Arboretum de Segrez in 1877 – Lavallee 1877) is the negative of ‘Aureomarginatum’, with a central yellow splash or streak to the leaves (which often lack side lobes) rather than a yellow margin. The yellow splash is often small and sometimes absent and the clone is not so showy, though the variegation fades less in summer; a 1984 planting at Bradenham Hall in Norfolk was 19 m tall by 2014 (The Tree Register 2018). The following three cultivars are so similar we do not consider them to merit distinct entries:
- ‘Aureo-pictum’ may differ more significantly, since the leaves were described as flecked with yellow
- ‘Aureo-maculata’ a name recorded from Kew c. 1895, presumably very similar
- ‘Purgatory’ a recent variant sold by BlueBell Nursery and others in the UK (BlueBell Nursery 2018) with a flame-like yellow streak or stippling in the leaf’s centre
'Rotundilobum'
Variants with reduced or blunter leaf lobes, including ‘Rotundilobum’, are discussed under ‘Crispum’.
'Snow Bird'
‘Snow Bird’, selected by Elliot Groves of Stepping Stones Nursery, New Plymouth, New Zealand (pers. comm. to N. Dunn 2018), has a showy, creamy-white margin to its leaves; young trees are rather upright. It has been offered for sale by several UK nurseries in recent years, but seems to have fallen out of favour because of an unfortunate tendency for the leaves to scorch in full sun when plants are still in pots; once trees are planted out this problem seems to resolve itself (R. Vernon, pers. comm. to TC, 2025). Certainly in the UK landscape ‘Snowbird’ has all the hallmarks of becoming an outstanding variegated landscape tree, and it would be a great pity if it were to disappear from the nursery trade because of this temporary cosmetic problem.
The following names represent similar forms which may or may not still be represented in historic gardens:
'Tennessee Gold'
A selection with yellow leaves made by Don Shadow. According to Dirr (2009), it is a vivid colour that holds better than ‘Glen Gold’.