This past weekend I was out of town visiting Vancouver for the first time. The foliage there is now a blend of green with warm reds, oranges, and yellows, which helped catch my attention for my biodiversity observation: the tulip tree. Specifically, this was a Chinese tulip tree (Liriodendron chinense) at the VanDusen Botanical Gardens. This has been one of my favorite trees since I first learned to identify it by its leaves which resemble a cat’s face when held upright by the petiole. Liriodendron means “lily tree” in Greek, but this species is also called the yellow poplar within the lumber industry. Its wood is used for numerous purposes, from house interiors to organs. In the past, Native Americans used the trunks to carve out their canoes so often that they called it “canoewood”. The tulip tree is the state tree of Tennessee, Kentucky, and Indiana, likely because of its remarkable leaves and beautiful flowers.