Tree-Walk through Leopold's Park
Identity
Category :
Arbre remarquable
Latin name :
Liriodendron tulipifera
French name :
Tulipier
Dutch name :
Tulpenboom
English name :
Yellow-poplar
Family :
Magnoliaceae
Height :
24 m
Targeted height :
Can grow up to 60 m in USA, 40 m in Belgium
Diameter of the crown :
16 m
Trunk circumference :
370 cm
Expected circumference :
/
Expected longevity :
Can live for 400–500 years
Origin / Indigenous
North America, eastern USA
Favorite soil :
cool and damp
Favorite climate
Cool and temperate (hot summer)
Belgian Federal State Collection on permanent loan to the Meise Botanical Garden. < https://www.plantentuinmeise.be/en/home/ > Michaux, Histoire des arbres forestiers de l'Amérique septentrionale, vol. 3, 1813
Features and characters of the individual
Tulip trees were already growing on Earth at the beginning of the Cretaceous, about 135 million years ago. They are part of one of the oldest flowering plant families on the planet (magnoliaceae). How to describe its amazing flowers? The scientific name of this tree "liriodendron tulipifera" seems to hesitate between two very different flowers. "Liriodendron" in ancient Greek means the tree (dendron) with a lily (leirion/lirion). In Latin "tulipifera" means who wears (fera) tulips (tulipi): it is a transposition of the word tulip into Latin). So lily or tulip? It's up to you: look at when it blooms, in late spring and summer. The common name in French (tulip tree) and Dutch (tulpenboom) have clearly opted for tulip. In principle, the leaves also remind us a little of the schematic shape of a tulip.... But this tulip tree is very curious. If you ever see leaves or flowers that don't look like a tulip at all, you're not dreaming. A small oak tree has taken up residence in the branches of this tree. No doubt a bird has deposited an acorn in a very crevice in the bark of the tulip tree.
