This morning I was pouring a driveway for my inlaws, and my buddy Doug was helping, along with another buddy, "little Jimmy" who's about 5'2", eyes of blue, Oh what those five feet could do, and a homeschooled teen. It was quite an undertaking, since thunderstorms kept popping up to rain on us. Nevertheless, we got the cement truck to come out in between storms and got her poured all right, and then another storm hit an hour later.
But that has nothing to do with trees, as some of you may have figured out. For the rest of you, just go with it. It'll be all right. :redface:
Doug and I got into an argument about the difference between "tulip tree" and "tulip poplar" and after he gave me a black eye, I decided I needed a more forceful argument, so I stuck his head in the cement for a minute or two. Jimmy just smoked his cigs and laughed the whole time while the teen just watched - amazed that a discussion about tree species could turn this direction. My father-in-law, who is an engineer, decided to handle things more diplomatically, so he encouraged us (with a shotgun) to break out our smart phones to get the right answer.
I had been saying that the Tulip Poplar trees had these funny sorta square leaves and green wood, and he was saying that they produced these pretty blossoms. Well, it turns out we were both right. In fact, in our research, we found out a lot of interesting things, and I recall hearing some of you talk about 'popple' and the other things listed in the thread title with a degree of interchangeability.
So, here is the authoritative answer to the question of all that.
Let's start big and work our way down. The only thing I remember from my public-school science classes is the list (in order) of the classification system for plants and animals. Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species. (That's it - 4 years of science and that's all I remember. Sorry about that.)
Let's start with Order
Magnoliales: a flowering plants that has six “families”, one of which is Magnoliaceae.
--Magnoliaceae family has two subfamilies: Magnolioideae and Liriodendroidae.
----Magnolioideae contains the Magnolia genus along with over 200 other genus.
----Liriodendroidae has only 1 genus: Liriodendron, the Tulip Tree.
-------Liriodendron has only two species. Liriodendron tulipfera is native to eastern US, and another species native to China and Vietnam.
---------Tulipfera is the Tulip poplar (also, Tulip Tree, Tuliptree, Yellow Poplar, Poplar)
Now, Poplars come from the genus Populus, which is in a completely different order (two classifications up) from Magnoliales, so they are not at all related to what is often called Poplar, but is really Tulip Poplar. In fact, the lumber you buy at the store called "poplar" is really Tulip Poplar.
Populus contains over 25 species, including Poplar, Aspen, and Cottonwood. Popple and Poplar are sometimes used to describe these trees.
Black Poplars are those tall, skinny, fast-growing trees that always seem to die off pretty quickly, but are still used a lot anyway in rows between subdivisions and roads.
Aspen and Cottonwood are quite different, and it's a wonder to me that they are even in the same Genus.
It's also surprising to me that Magnolia and Tulip Poplar are in the same Family as well, but I wasn't asked during the classification process.
The Magnolia Grandiflora are the ones with the really waxy leaves which don't drop in the winter, and have a big colorful blossom in the spring.
So there you have it. Doug and I did decided to make up, and we thought that leaving his faceprint in the driveway would be a good testament as to how two mature adults can come to a reasonable and non-violent conclusion when discussing things of a controversial nature.:msp_rolleyes:
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But that has nothing to do with trees, as some of you may have figured out. For the rest of you, just go with it. It'll be all right. :redface:
Doug and I got into an argument about the difference between "tulip tree" and "tulip poplar" and after he gave me a black eye, I decided I needed a more forceful argument, so I stuck his head in the cement for a minute or two. Jimmy just smoked his cigs and laughed the whole time while the teen just watched - amazed that a discussion about tree species could turn this direction. My father-in-law, who is an engineer, decided to handle things more diplomatically, so he encouraged us (with a shotgun) to break out our smart phones to get the right answer.
I had been saying that the Tulip Poplar trees had these funny sorta square leaves and green wood, and he was saying that they produced these pretty blossoms. Well, it turns out we were both right. In fact, in our research, we found out a lot of interesting things, and I recall hearing some of you talk about 'popple' and the other things listed in the thread title with a degree of interchangeability.
So, here is the authoritative answer to the question of all that.
Let's start big and work our way down. The only thing I remember from my public-school science classes is the list (in order) of the classification system for plants and animals. Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species. (That's it - 4 years of science and that's all I remember. Sorry about that.)
Let's start with Order
Magnoliales: a flowering plants that has six “families”, one of which is Magnoliaceae.
--Magnoliaceae family has two subfamilies: Magnolioideae and Liriodendroidae.
----Magnolioideae contains the Magnolia genus along with over 200 other genus.
----Liriodendroidae has only 1 genus: Liriodendron, the Tulip Tree.
-------Liriodendron has only two species. Liriodendron tulipfera is native to eastern US, and another species native to China and Vietnam.
---------Tulipfera is the Tulip poplar (also, Tulip Tree, Tuliptree, Yellow Poplar, Poplar)
Now, Poplars come from the genus Populus, which is in a completely different order (two classifications up) from Magnoliales, so they are not at all related to what is often called Poplar, but is really Tulip Poplar. In fact, the lumber you buy at the store called "poplar" is really Tulip Poplar.
Populus contains over 25 species, including Poplar, Aspen, and Cottonwood. Popple and Poplar are sometimes used to describe these trees.
Black Poplars are those tall, skinny, fast-growing trees that always seem to die off pretty quickly, but are still used a lot anyway in rows between subdivisions and roads.
Aspen and Cottonwood are quite different, and it's a wonder to me that they are even in the same Genus.
It's also surprising to me that Magnolia and Tulip Poplar are in the same Family as well, but I wasn't asked during the classification process.
The Magnolia Grandiflora are the ones with the really waxy leaves which don't drop in the winter, and have a big colorful blossom in the spring.
So there you have it. Doug and I did decided to make up, and we thought that leaving his faceprint in the driveway would be a good testament as to how two mature adults can come to a reasonable and non-violent conclusion when discussing things of a controversial nature.:msp_rolleyes:
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