Look up in late spring and you might spot them: tulip-shaped flowers, yellow-green with a bright orange band, held high in the crown of one of eastern North America’s tallest native trees [1].

Despite the common nickname “tulip poplar,” Liriodendron tulipifera isn’t a poplar at all. It belongs to the magnolia family, and its flowers show it.

The leaves are just as distinctive. Each one is squared off at the tip, so its outline looks like a tulip in silhouette. In fall they turn a clear golden yellow.

Because the blooms open so far overhead, many people only notice them when fallen petals dot the ground below. Bees find them easily, though.