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 [1b, 3a].
Despite the common nickname “tulip poplar,” Liriodendron tulipifera isn’t a poplar at all. It belongs to the magnolia family, [3b] 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. [3c] In fall they turn a clear golden yellow. [1c] Amazingly, the dried ‘seed pods’ (actually aggregate samaras) also look like a flower in bloom! [3d]
Because the blooms open so far overhead, many people only notice them when fallen petals dot the ground below. [1a, 1d] Bees find them easily, though.
