We have several Liriodendron tulipifera in the 110-foot, 50+ inch dbh class here in West Central IL. quite a bit north of native range in the south of the state. The thing that I have noticed is that while in the Carbondale area the branches were very brittle to climb, these trees planted in early 1900's rarely ever lose a limb over an inch in diameter. Have no idea where the seed source was from but have seen a picture from 1917 where the trees were about 10' tall. 3 have been removed in the last 40 years, but I do not recall any major limb fall in the past 50 years. Just one of the oddities of nature, I guess.
Kind of like the Bald Cypress I transplanted at Western Illinois University in the summer of 88 during extreme drought. Had to use backhoe to loosen top of clay soil left over from land leveling and construction to get tree spade in the ground. All 5 survived and flourished and are around 50' today. My reasoning was that the soil probably had about the same aeration as a swamp does and the roots all seemed to go straight down as opposed to other trees I have planted and so found some moisture. Also, if your get a section of root from a Taxodium you will find that you can blow through it like a soda straw. This may be the secret to their ability to survive in less than perfectly aerated soils. Is it also the reason for knees besides wrecking boats and props?
The longer I work around trees (since 1967) the less I am sure that I know about them. It keeps the work interesting.
