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64 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland Liriodendron
LIRIODENDRON CHINENSE, CHINESE TULIP TREE
Liriodendron chinense, Sargent, Trees and Shrubs, Hi. 103, PI. Hi. (1903) ; Hemsley in Hook. If. PI. t.
Liriodendron chinense, Hemsley, Card. Chron. 1 903, p. 370.
Liriodendron tulipifera, L., var. ? chinensis, Hemsley, Jour. Linn. Sot. xxiii. 25 (1886).
The Chinese tulip tree was discovered by Shearer ' and Maries z in the Lushan
mountains near Kiukiang, on the Yangtse, and was afterwards found by me growing
plentifully in the mountain woods both north and south of Ichang, in Hupeh, at
3000 to 6000 feet altitude. Von Rosthorn 3 found it farther west, at Nan-ch'uan
in Szechuan. It does not occur on the lower levels, and is essentially a tree of the
mountains bounding the valley of the Yangtse, from 107 to 1 16 E. longitude, and
from 29 to 32 N. latitude. I never saw any large specimens, and it does not attain,
so far as is known, the size of the American species. Von Rosthorn records it as
about 50 feet in height. Maries notes it as a fine spreading tree occurring at a
temple near Kiukiang. It was introduced in 1901 into cultivation from Hupeh by
Wilson, who collected for Messrs. Veitch ; and young trees may be seen in their
nursery at Coombe Wood, and also at Kew. These seedlings in January 1905 were
at Kew about 15 inches in height, and have stood without injury the cold of the last
few winters ; but it is too soon yet to decide whether this species will turn out
to be hardy in this climate.
The Chinese tulip tree is almost indistinguishable in foliage from the American
tree, but as a rule the leaves are more glaucous on the under surface, and the
lobing is deeper and more obtuse. The flowers are greenish in colour and smaller
in size than those of Liriodendron tulipifera. Moreover, the narrow petals spread
out when fully open, and have not a tulip shape. The carpels are consolidated, so
as to appear like a solid column, and are obtuse at the apex when ripe. In the
American species the carpels are free from each other at an early stage, and have
when ripe acute recurved tips.
In winter there is little to distinguish the two species, except that in
Liriodendron chinense the twigs are grey (not shining brown), the buds come off at
a very acute angle, and the leaf scars are oboval and not truly circular as they are in
the common species.
The Chinese call the tree Wo-cliang-cliiu, i.e. " goose-foot Catalpa," from the
shape of the leaves, but the tree is of no economic importance with them. It
apparently regenerates readily from the stool, as I found it, where the wood-cutters
had been at work, as strong coppice shoots with enormous leaves, more than a foot
across.
1 In 1875. See L. M. Moore in/oar. Bet. 1 875, p. 225.
2 In 1878. See Hemsley in Card. Chron. 1 889, vi. 718. a Diels, Flora van Central China, 322 (1901).
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LIRIODENDRON TULIPIFERA, TULIP TREE'
Liriodendron tulipifera, Linnaeus, Sp. PI. i st ed. 535 (1753); Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. i. 284
(1838); Sargent, Silva of N. America, i. 19, tt 13, 14 (1891).
A lofty tree, attaining in America in the most favourable conditions a height of
190 feet, and a stem diameter of 10 feet. Bark grey and smooth in young trees,
becoming darker in colour and furrowed in old trees. Roots, fleshy with pale brown
bark, having an aromatic odour and pungent taste.
Leaves extremely variable in shape, but generally saddle-shaped or lyrate in out
line, with a rounded or cordate base, and a truncate emarginate apex, 2 the midrib
being prolonged into a short bristle. Sometimes they are quite entire, but are more
usually lobed, the lobes varying from 2-6 or even 8 in number, and often ending in a
point. Venation pinnate. The leaves are 3-5 inches in length and in breadth, dark
green and smooth above, lighter in colour and minutely pubescent underneath.
Stalks about as long as the blades, angled and slender, so that the leaves quiver with
any movement of the air. In autumn they turn bright yellow in colour, and give the
tree a handsome appearance.
Two lateral stipules 3 occur on the twigs, attached a little higher up than the
insertion of the leaf-stalk. These are the scales which have formed the buds of the
previous winter ; and, as a rule, they shrivel up and fall off when the young leaves are
fully matured; but some of them remain on vigorous shoots till late in summer.
The flowers resemble a tulip in shape, being i|~2 inches long, with a width of
2 inches at the summit. The petals are greenish white, with an orange-coloured
band at the base, which secretes nectar attractive to bees. These visit the trees in
myriads in May, the flowering season in Illinois.
The fruit, light brown in colour, is a cone made up of a large number
(about 70) of ripe carpels, which consist of a 4-ribbed pericarp surmounted by a
flattened woody wing (the enlarged style). The wing may carry the seed by
currents of air 300 or 400 feet from the parent tree. The carpels remain on the tree
till thoroughly dry, some usually persisting throughout the winter on the receptacle, a
few falling at a time as the wind dislodges them. The outer ones are nearly always
sterile. The carpels will float in water for nearly a year without sinking; and this
may explain the distribution of the tree along the banks of rivers. The seed has a
fleshy albumen, in the summit of which is situated a minute embryo.
Seedling. — The seedling has two aerial short-stalked oval cotyledons about
1 Usually called "Yellow Poplar" in the United States, "White-wood" also being a name in use amongst tbe western
lumbermen.
2 Lubbock, in Trans. Linn. Soc. (Bot.) xxiv. 84, ascribes the form of the leaves to the way in which they are packed in
the bud.
3 Occasionally the stipules are attached as wings to the leaf-stalk either near its base or higher up; and in rare cases they
even unite with the base of the leaf-blade, appearing then to be extra lower lobes of the leaf itself. For accounts of these
peculiar stipules and remarkable forms of leaves occurring in tulip trees, see E. W. Bury in Bull. Torrey Bot. Club, 1901,
p. 493, and in Torreya, 1 901, p. 105, and 1902, p. 33.
I K.