Pretty common especially on road side, grows fast, beavers love it. Very common as a yard tree. after logging or if a field it let to go native you get three trees first; white birch, pin cherry and Tulip
Just remember if you go to the lumber yard and see poplar lumber, that is yellow poplar; aka tulip poplar.
See that brown stingy layer of under bark? Stuffs like a sponge. Holds water forever once it gets wet. If it wasnt for that it’d probably dry in a week Keep it covered.
Liriodendron tulipifera - Wikipedia Populus - Wikipedia darned scientists and their pesky plant kingdom classifications
That range in pictures (marked in green) is wrong, as it definitely grows here.. in description it says Canada but stops green close to Massachusetts.
Once cut some Lombardy Poplar in June, split the wet stinky stuff immediately, stacked in a single row full sun. By beginning of August started the firepit with and burned a few more splits. Amazed by the weight loss, I bet it only weighed 1/3 what it did. Stink was gone, and hardly smoked. I called it seasoned enough for starter material or shoulder.
Update ~ I fired up my stove for the first time this season using some of the tulip poplar. I split a couple pieces and they averaged 15-16% moisture content. So basically this stuff went from 35% to 15% in only 2 months. My plan to leave this in my truck to dry went out the window after a couple weeks due to wood scores coming up after the tropical storm downed trees all over my area. What I did was cross stack the wood on a pallet right next to the driveway in full sun where the radiant heat (I hoped) would bake the moisture out. Obviously it worked! This was my first experience with tulip poplar and I figured the information might be useful to someone who’s never burned tulip. Despite being lower BTU, it DOES throw out decent heat as well. I’m happy I grabbed it and will definitely take more in the future.
Minewent from tree to under 20 % in 8 months. CSS around new years and checked with MM last month. Not in full sun but under cover. Id take it again as well. Not a common scrounge for me though.
I’m already a fan from day one. Easy to split, fast to season, lightweight and easy to handle. I filled my back deck rack full last night with tulip. I wish I took more! Once I run out it’s on to blue spruce and aspen for shoulder wood.
Absolutely. It probably helped that this year was especially hot for a long time and very dry too. Most of the times it did rain I covered the stacks as well.
Worst thing about tulip poplar is the way it pops when burning. Not a big problem in a stove but terrible in a fireplace. We had a massive die off of tp a few years ago and it was laying around the woods everywhere, only time I cut it was if it was in a path or unsightly from the house. You couldn't give it away around here, I know a guy that had over a cord css'd and couldn't get rid of it. When it dries completely it still pops and burns so fast you'll wear the hinges off the woodstove door keeping it loaded.
Yeah I noticed the burn time wasn't anything to write home about. I mixed some blue spruce in with it which also burned fast. I think for fast fires just to take the chill out or an ambiance fire it does the trick. I wouldn't want a ton of it on hand taking up space though. And yes it does pop like crazy. I wouldn't dare try it in a fireplace!
