Jenny I really couldn't speak in comparison with the E. White Pine, but Yellow Poplar is a relatively fast growing hardwood. I would compare it's growth rate down here in SE GA favorably with Loblolly Pine. The difference being, at least here in the south, that Yellow Poplar is very site specific (as many hardwoods are). Yet that site varies by region. Up in the mountains and upper piedmont of GA the tree is found generally in rich northfacing coves. Down in south GA it is found in what we refer to as poplarheads. These are springheads that are generally wet year round, but not at the bottom of the drainage where water stands. Not sure how to describe it if you are not familiar with the term springhead other than to say they grow on a slight slope at the head of branches, where the water doesn't puddle yet you are going to get your tennis shoes muddy walking through it. Generally the soils are a little better in these poplarheads than in areas of deep sandier soils where the same hydrological regime would result in highly acidic bayheads where Bay trees would replace the poplars.
As for their reproduction, poplars fill a niche where other trees don't thrive. The other thing about poplar trees is they are prolific seeders. If you select cut poplar, red maple or tupelo will dominate, but if you clearcut and the seeds get some light, because the seeds will remain viable for many years in the duff, poplar reproduction will predominate. As they are a relatively valuable hardwood timber tree down here (peeler logs) we recommend clearcutting or patch cutting if it is a good poplar site and there are even just few poplar trees around you will be rewarded with good poplar regeneration. Another problem with select cutting, besides the risk of high grading, is that the boggy sites they thrive on will generally be damaged by the equipment and result in disease and degrade on the remaining poplar trees. I would suspect this would not be as much an issue in the mountains or piedmont. On Jul 12, 7:28 am, JennyNYC <[email protected]> wrote: > ENTS, > > So many grand tulip trees in the northeast (and probably elsewhere). I > know that this is an early succession species and that it is a > relatively fast grower (would you compare it to the growth rate of an > eastern white pine?), but it couldn't have germinated in all those > places on its own could it? Seems that it would be a great tree to > plant for reforestation of parks/non-timber land, so it would have > been actively planted as well. And from what I've observed, once they > are established they seem to propagate pretty well. > > Jenny --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Eastern Native Tree Society http://www.nativetreesociety.org Send email to [email protected] Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
