April 2026: Tulip Poplar

Our tree of the month for April was inspired by Rachel Cook, a botanist who is Trees Lexington’s Director of Programs. She writes:

Rachel's tulip poplar in the valley of her family's farm.

“While growing up on the family farm in Washington County, I often admired the beauty of a massive tree in the valley. It was clearly a remnant tree that had survived logging and farming, much older and gnarly than the trees around it. The land was used for tobacco farming before our family bought it in 1995. As I grew up, the trees grew up with me. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was watching as the fast-growing, first successional tree species began their march up the valleys. First, the cedars became a dense thicket. Then the hardwoods like shagbark hickories, red maples, and Shumard oaks became abundant."

"This beautiful tulip poplar is what started my love of trees and desire to know more. I loved watching the tree leaf-out and produce the loveliest flowers each May. It was one of the first trees I collected a leaf from for my 4-H leaf collection in elementary school. Each year, I would celebrate it surviving ice storms and severe thunderstorms. Watching the storms roll in over the tree was majestic.”

Rachel's mom shows her wingspan in relation to the diameter of the tulip poplar.

The tulip poplar, (Liriodendron tulipifera), is one of the largest native trees in Eastern North America. It can grow to 60 to 90 feet in height and sometimes shoots up to 150 feet, so it needs a large space to grow. It likes full sun. It is low maintenance. It attracts butterf

lies, including the eastern swallowtail, as well as hummingbirds and other birds, and can tolerate rabbits, deer, clay or wet soil and black walnut trees. It is the state tree of Kentucky, Indiana and Tennessee.

Tulip poplars have large, waxy green leaves that turn gold and brown in the fall. Its outstanding feature is the tulip-like blooms that are yellow with an orange band at the base of the petal.

It is a tree with many common names, including tulip tree, yellow poplar, canary whitewood and canoewood. It earned the latter name because Native Americans used them to make canoes. They also used part of the tree for medicinal purposes, a practice that was passed on to early European settlers in Appalachia.

Here are sites where you can learn more:

https://mortonarb.org/plant-and-protect/trees-and-plants/tuliptree/

https://www.bloodandspicebush.com/blog/tulip-poplar-the-canoe-tree

https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/liriodendron-tulipifera/