Description
Liriodendron – Tulip Tree –
There are 2 species of fast growing, deciduous tree in this genus. They occur in woodland in China, Vietnam, and North America. They are grown for their stately habit, and curiously shaped, 4 lobed, alternate leaves, which turn yellow in autumn. The solitary, bell shaped flowers are pale green with orange at the bases and numerous stamens are inconspicuous from a distance, add interest in summer, but are not produces on young plants, they are followed cone like fruits.. Exxcellent grown as specimen trees.
Grow in moderately fertile, preferably slightly acidc, moist but well drained soil in full sun or partial shade.
Prone to borers, weevils, leaf miners, scale insects, aphids, sooty mold, and mealy bugs, powdery mildew, antracnose, butt rot, dieback, lesion nematode, and wilt.
L. chinense – Chinese Tulip Tree – This rare and smaller, denser of the two species is fast growing and broadly columnar, deciduous tree from China and Vietnam grows 80′ feet tall and half as wide. It produces saddle shaped, dark green leaves, to 6″ long, the leaves are squarish, and indistinctly lobed at the tips, hollowed at the bases with pointed lobe at each side with glaucous undersides with minute hairs, which turn yellow in autumn. It bears cup shaped green flowers, 1 ½”’ long, with yellow veins, in mid summer, followed by conical, pale brown clusters of fruit that fall apart when ripe.
Zones 6-9
