A genus of two species, one North American, one Chinese. They are deciduous trees closely related to the magnolias, but differing from them in the truncate, never pointed leaves, the differently shaped, terminal winter-bud, and closed seed-vessels. Leaves alternate; flowers solitary at the end of a short branch; sepals three; petals six; carpels densely packed on a spindle-shaped column.
The tulip trees are gross feeders, and will only attain their best in good deep soil. They are impatient of disturbance at the root, and should be given a permanent place early. Like magnolias, they are probably most successfully transplanted in May. Seeds are produced in immense quantities, but comparatively few are fertile. Even in America it is said of the native species that barely 10 per cent can be expected to grow. Still seeds can now be cheaply obtained from American nurserymen, and they afford the best means of increase. The varieties may be grafted on seedlings of L. tulipifera in March; given a little heat in a propagating case, they unite very readily.