I have been seeing the flowers of tulip trees (Liriodendron tulipifera) on the ground during some recent photo excursions and yesterday I finally found a tree at Occoquan Regional Park where the flowers were low enough for me to get a shot of one of them. I like to call it a tulip tree because of the shape of these flowers, but it has lots of other names by which it is known including American tulip tree, tulipwood, tuliptree, tulip poplar, whitewood, fiddletree, canoewood, and yellow poplar.
Tulip trees are fast-growing and can get to be really tall. According to the Arbor Day Foundation, a tulip tree can have height increases of more than 24 inches (61 cm) per year. George Washington is reported to have planted some tulip trees at Mount Vernon that are now 140 feet (43 meters) tall. They can grow even taller than that—according to Wikipedia, the current tallest tulip tree on record in North America is 191.9 feet (58 meters) in height. Wow!
You may notice that I managed to capture an insect in this image, one that I cannot immediately identify. My friend Cindy Dyer like to call them “bonus bugs,” when you discover them only after you have taken the photo. In this case, I was watching the insect crawl around as I was composing the shot, so it does not qualify as a “bonus bug.”
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
They are so beautiful but the flowers don’t last very long…
So true, Rudi. So often beauty is fleeting–it is here for a few moments and then is gone. My approach is to focus on enjoying the beauty whenever and wherever I can find it and to be thankful for those moments, however short they may turn out to be.
Aren’t they gorgeous? I so enjoy the one by our pond.
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