Tulip Tree
Yesterday, as he had promised, my neighbor and very good friend right up the road, G., called and told me to bring over my saw, because along with one of his sons, P., and another neighborhood youth, W., he had very generously, as is his longtime habit, cut and had dragged out of his woods into a field a very large Yellow Poplar, or Tuliptree as it is also known. It had been struck by lightning and was already dead in its upper reaches, though not completely so in its trunk.
We all have a lot of yellow poplars around here. They start growing at a moment's notice and relatively fast, too, for a hardwood, as they are classed because they are deciduous, though its wood is actually softer and easier to split than that of the softwoods around here, mainly the pines. One poplar is growing closer to my house than I really want. It is right in front of my front deck, but I didn't think much about it when I sited the house and started building it, 31 years ago. But it was pretty nondescript then, and not more than 3 or 4 inches through. But now it is a monster, with a trunk over a foot thick.
Yellow poplars are important and beautiful trees. They are called tulip trees because their leaves have that shape. They have large cream, green, and orangish blossoms in the spring that are the main honey crop for beekeepers in this region. Plus it has wood that is really beautiful when fresh cut, a creamy greenish yellow and often with brownish and even blue and purplish heartwood. But those colors fade quickly as the wood dries, though it is still prized for cabinetry, especially, to my observation, in making the inner parts of drawers.
But in the woodstove it isn't the most warmth-producing, and I have read of it as being an "indifferent firewood." But my philosophy has always been that wood is wood, no matter what kind it is, and every kind has its uses.
Anyway, I suddenly have a lot of it to saw up and split, more than enough to finish up our wood piles for the year and well into next year, too. And it is definitely much easier to haul from G's field in my pickup than carting the hickory off the hillside has been. My only problem is where am I going to store it all?
But as problems go, that's a great one to have.
We all have a lot of yellow poplars around here. They start growing at a moment's notice and relatively fast, too, for a hardwood, as they are classed because they are deciduous, though its wood is actually softer and easier to split than that of the softwoods around here, mainly the pines. One poplar is growing closer to my house than I really want. It is right in front of my front deck, but I didn't think much about it when I sited the house and started building it, 31 years ago. But it was pretty nondescript then, and not more than 3 or 4 inches through. But now it is a monster, with a trunk over a foot thick.
Yellow poplars are important and beautiful trees. They are called tulip trees because their leaves have that shape. They have large cream, green, and orangish blossoms in the spring that are the main honey crop for beekeepers in this region. Plus it has wood that is really beautiful when fresh cut, a creamy greenish yellow and often with brownish and even blue and purplish heartwood. But those colors fade quickly as the wood dries, though it is still prized for cabinetry, especially, to my observation, in making the inner parts of drawers.
But in the woodstove it isn't the most warmth-producing, and I have read of it as being an "indifferent firewood." But my philosophy has always been that wood is wood, no matter what kind it is, and every kind has its uses.
Anyway, I suddenly have a lot of it to saw up and split, more than enough to finish up our wood piles for the year and well into next year, too. And it is definitely much easier to haul from G's field in my pickup than carting the hickory off the hillside has been. My only problem is where am I going to store it all?
But as problems go, that's a great one to have.
posted by Carl (aka Sofarsogoo) | 5:35 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home