YELLOW POPLAR 



(Liriodendron Tulipifcra) 



IN diameter of trunk the yellow poplar is, next to sycamore, the 

 largest hardwood tree of the United States, and if both height and 

 trunk diameter are considered, it surpasses the sycamore in size. It 

 belongs to a very old group of hardwoods which have come down from 

 remote geological ages, and the species is now found only in the United 

 States and China. Mature trees are from three to eight feet in diameter 

 and from 90 to 180 in height. 



It has many names in different parts of its range, but it is never 

 mistaken for any other tree. The peculiar notched leaf is a sure means 

 of identification. The resemblance of the flower to the tulip has given 

 it the name tulip tree in some localities, and botanists prefer that name. 

 It is so called in Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, 

 New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West 

 Virginia, District of Columbia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, 

 Arkansas, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Ontario. Wood users 

 in New England and in some of the other northern states prefer the 

 name whitewood and it is so known, in part at least, in New England, 

 New York, New Jersey, Delaware, South Carolina, Kentucky, Ohio, 

 Michigan, and Illinois. Yellow poplar is the name preferred by lumber- 

 men in nearly all regions where the tree is found in commercial quan- 

 tities, notably in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, 

 Virginia, West Virginia, North and South Carolina, Alabama, Arkansas, 

 Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and Tennessee. The name 

 is often shortened to poplar, which is used in Rhode Island, Delaware, 

 North and South Carolina, Florida, Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, and 

 Indiana. The name tulip poplar is less frequently heard, and blue 

 poplar and hickory poplar are terms used in West Virginia, Virginia, 

 and North Carolina, but generally under the impression that they refer 

 to a different form or species. In Rhode Island it is called popple, in 

 New York cucumber tree, and canoewood in Tennessee and in the upper 

 Ohio valley. 



The botanical range of yellow poplar is wider than its commercial 

 range; that is, a few trees are found in regions surrounding the borders 

 of the district where the tree is profitably lumbered. The boundaries 

 of its range run from southwestern Vermont, westward to Lake Michigan 

 near Grand Haven, southward to northern Florida, and west of the 

 Mississippi river in Missouri and Arkansas. The productive yellow 

 poplar timber belt has never been that large but has clung pretty closely 



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