|
The Liriodendron Project |
Gary
Beluzo |
| Jan
2007 |
My
goal is to put all data (geographic, dendromorphometric,
photographic, etc) into a
GIS database and make it available on the ENTS site, if we can
setup an ARC
ENGINE. It would be a good template for Eastern U.S. data on
other trees to
follow. Bob Leverett is my partner and colleague in this
project.
Gary
Gary A. Beluzo
Professor of Environmental Science
Science, Engineering, and Mathematics Division
Holyoke Community College |
| The
Liriodendron Project |
Gary
A. Beluzo |
| Jan
07, 2007 11:42 PST |
ENTS,
Over the past week I began exploring western Massachusetts for
the
northeastern extent of the Liriodendron tulipifera distribution.
Ray Weber
and I went out in the field on January 3 to measure several
tulip poplars
that Ray had discovered just south of the Massachusetts Turnpike
(Rte 90) on
Rte 20/23. There were less than a dozen trees in a small
drainage leading
down to the Westfield River. The largest was 6.6 feet (girth)
and
123.2feet (height). Next we drove north on Rte 20/23 and picked
up
several tulip
poplars north of the Mass Pike. Most of the trees barely made
100 feet but
one made 123.5 feet at a girth of 7.6 feet.
Here is a list of other locations where we found tulip poplar
that day:
Carrington Road, Russell/Montgomery 25-30
trees, most young, pole
size but largest 8.4' 123.5'
Old Rte 23, Russell 25+
trees (high H:D
ratio, steep ravine) 6.6' 127.7'
New Rte 23 (north side), Russell 25+
trees (many marked for
cutting) 6.5' 100.1'
On January 4 I went back out and found population of tulip
poplars in
Westhampton (several miles along Cold Springs Road and Laurel
Springs
Road). The first stop I made was just west of the
Westhampton/Southampton
line. It was hill with a north aspect, there were logging roads
and stumps
from 20-40 years ago is my estimate. Tulip poplars were mostly
young of
many sizes (even saplings). Associates including white birch,
hemlock,
black birch, northern red oak, yellow birch. The substrate is
rocky with
good supply of water.
Most of the trees were less than 100 feet with the following
girths:
5.1'
3.8'
4.7'
3.2'
2.3' (with seed pods)
0.9' (without seed pods)
2.8'
2.9'
2.35 '
the largest tree in this stand was 5.9' girth and 103.5'. This
population
in Westhampton needs more measurement, especially the areas to
the immediate
west and south.
My last stop that day was on Russell Road in Montgomery which
winds up a
steep slope. Tulip trees were present with the largest stem
being 6.2' and
105.8' in height. This is a good location to do further work
because the
tulip poplars are fairly numerous right up to a particular spot
on the hill
(didn't have my altimeter with me) and then abruptly end. Many
trees had
dead limbs and appeared stunted.
Next week I am headed for points north and west of Westhampton,
MA. It
should be noted that none of the stands in Russell, Montgomery,
or
Westhampton had the stature (height especially) of the Robinson
State Park
stand, which I believe still represents the best development of
tulip poplar
in the Conn River Valley north of the MA/CT line. Certainly the
density of
large stems has no rival north as of my explorations yet. Also,
we have
discovered many stands which are not indicated on the 1938 Egler
Distribution Map. On that particular map the most northerly
stand indicated
in this area is in Southampton (north and east of Manhan Road at
Tighe/Carmody Reservoir). Given the expanse of the Westhampton
population
it is unlikely that that stand was missed. Could many of these
tulip
poplars in Russell, Montgomery, and Westhampton be the result of
the 1938
hurricane or more recent widespread disturbance? Hopefully I can
answer
many of these questions when I am on sabbatical.
BTW, Bob Leverett is out at a few of the recently discovered
sites today,
maybe he will have some better heights to report on.
Gary
Gary A. Beluzo
Professor of Environmental Science
Science, Engineering, and Mathematics
Holyoke Community College
303 Homestead Avenue
Holyoke, MA 01040
|
| Re:
The Liriodendron Project |
Fores-@aol.com |
| Jan
09, 2007 17:19 PST |
Gary:
I am not sure how soon I will be able to get up to Massachusetts
to show you
the location of the stand of poplar on private property in
Whately but the
owner is an environmental engineer and he is open to any sort of
scientific
visit. If you want to give me a holler direct I can put you in
contact with
him.
Also, I would recommend just taking a look at a few of the
islands in the
river where the Deerfield and Connecticut Rivers merge.
There is one place in particular between Deerfield and
Greenfield that I
have wondered about for that may warrant checking as well.
Russ |
| RE:
Back to Will-TULIP CORES |
Gary
A. Beluzo |
| Feb
13, 2007 21:45 PST |
Will,
I have been ordering equipment through the ENVSCI DEPT for some
of the work
I hope to do during my sabbatical which may lead to the
development of
several terrestrial ecology labs in the ENV 120-140 sequence I
teach. I just
received the Macroscope 25 and a new incremental core so yes I
will be doing
some aging of those tulip poplars that are at the edge of their
NE
distribution.
Gary
|
| Tulip
Trees |
beth
koebel |
| Feb
15, 2007 07:44 PST |
ENTS,
I am sorry but I have forgotten who is collecting data on tulip
trees.
I am going down to Oakdale, Illinois next Tuesday and I will
measure our
tulip tree down there. It is not a big one but I do know roughly
when
it was planted as a one or two year tree. It was planted between
1974
and 1979.
I don't know if you want this data as it is from Illinois.
Beth |
| RE:
Tulip Trees |
Robert
Leverett |
| Feb
15, 2007 09:34 PST |
Beth,
Gary Beluzo is leading the study. I am the other principal
participant
at this point. We would like all the tulip tree data you could
send us.
Tulip tree data from Beale Woods would be particularly valuable.
We have
some, but not enough.
Bob
|
| Re:
Tulip Trees |
Gary
A. Beluzo |
| Feb
16, 2007 05:24 PST |
Hi
Beth,
Yes..I am collecting any and all data on Liriodendron tulipifera
for my GIS
mapping project. I will be on sabbatical in 3 months and doing
field work
in New England and some excursions down to Georgia. I would
appreciate any
data on this species. Ed Frank has graciously offered to compile
our
reports/data on the ENTS site.
Thank you.
Gary
|
| Re:
Withdraw from Robinson |
Neil
Pederson |
| Feb
15, 2007 17:12 PST |
Ray, ENTS,
I strongly encourage collecting the flowering data of
tulip-poplar. I
was lucky enough to get access to a nice set of first bloom
dates from
southern NYS from 1976-2006. I only recently got the last few
years,
but analysis with the first 19 yrs shows a very strong
correlation
between Mar-May daytime temperatures; super strong. If the whole
time
period turns out to have a similar correlation, we plan to
submit this
for publication sometime this semester.
neil
|
| RE:
Withdraw from Robinson |
Doug
Bidlack |
| Feb
15, 2007 19:26 PST |
Neil,
when you say first bloom date, what exactly do you mean? Is it
the the
date that the very first flower blooms?
This interests me because I planted three tuliptrees. Two are
from
Hillsdale County, MI only about 10 miles are so North of the
Ohio border
(seedlings from the same tree)and one is from the State of
Michigan.
I've noticed that the Hillsdale Co. trees aways seem to lose
their
leaves before the State of Michigan tree. This makes me think
the State
of Michigan tree may be from a more southerly locale. I was
thinking of
recording some info on first and last leaves of the season and
now I can
add bloom time as well. Only problem is I'm not sure that the
State of
Michigan tree is blooming yet, but the other two definately are
old
enough to flower.
Doug
|
| Re:
Withdraw from Robinson |
Gary
A. Beluzo |
| Feb
16, 2007 05:41 PST |
Doug
and Neil,
Interesting exchange. In Massachusetts, at the NE terminus of
Liriodendron's distribution I am finding that the largest trees
(even the
ones with advanced age) are struggling to make 7 feet girth
(most are in the
5-6 feet girth range). In this area, trees that are 0.9 feet CBH
and less
are not sexually mature (no pods this winter) whereas I do find
the dried
pods on the trees over 1.5 feet CBH. I'll be watching for
swelling buds,
flowers, and leaf out here in MA during April-May.
I would be very interested to hear from our colleagues south
(Georgia to
Pennsylvania) on the flower/leaf out times this year.
Gary
|
| Re:
Withdraw from Robinson |
Neil
Pederson |
| Feb
16, 2007 05:50 PST |
Gary,
In so. NYS in this one population first flowering dates are as
late
as the last week of May. I would imagine that at the NE edge of
its
range, early-June is a common date of first flowering. Perhaps
Thoreau
made some observations on tulip phenology? That or the Harvard
Arboretum.
Dave O - are there any observations at the Harvard Forest [by
extreme chance]?
neil
|
| Re:
Withdraw from Robinson |
Neil
Pederson |
| Feb
16, 2007 06:09 PST |
Doug,
I didn't collect this data, but was told that it was the date
that
the first bloom was noted; I just got a time series of red maple
blooms, too. The difficulty is seeing the tulip bloom from the
ground;
the soouthern NYS tulips bloom in mid-May when many leaves are
out.
Luckily for this location there is a cliff from which the
observer can
look down into the tulip crowns.
Leaf on and off data would be neat, too.
neil
|
| Liriodendron
Bloom Schedule |
Megan
Varnes |
| Feb
16, 2007 08:27 PST |
According to "The Hive and the Honey Bee" (which is a
fabulous book if you want to know -absolutely
everything- about honey bees) bee foraging on
Liriodendron occurs mainly between April through June
for the following states: MO, IL, MI, IN, PA, OH, KY,
TN, MS, AL, GA, NJ, MD, WV, VA, NC, DE and SC. And
slightly later, late May to early June for CT.
Though mostly considered by bees (and researchers) to
be a secondary source of nectar in most of the states
mentioned, they can be a primary summer nectar sorce
in Connecticut. Even so, they are considered very
important nectar producers in most of these states.
Probably in part because individual flowers have been
known to produce up to 9 grams of nectar! One flower!
So, I suppose the alternate method for getting more
exact bloom dates for Liriodendron would be to put
away the binoculars and watch for honey bees instead!
If there are flowers, they'll find them before we will
for sure. I guess you could say......bee attentive
this spring?
-Meg
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