Liriodendron

Trees , deciduous. Pith diaphragmed. Leaves distinctly alternate, not in false terminal whorl; stipules tardily deciduous on summer shoots, free. Leaf blade evenly (2-)4-6(-10)-lobed, base rounded to shallowly cordate or truncate, apex broadly truncate or notched; surfaces abaxially glaucous, adaxially lustrous, smooth. Flowers protogynous, appearing with the leaves; tepals (7-)9, petaloid, tip recurved, greenish yellow with feathered orange band or blotch near base, outermost tepals sepaloid, reflexed, green; stamens on short torus, tardily deciduous, whorled; filaments 1/3-1/2 length of extrorse anthers. Samaras deciduous, indehiscent, in elongate, spindle-shaped, dry cone. Seeds adherent to dry endocarp. x =19.

Sep 3, soon reflexed; pet 6, erect, broadly ovate, forming a cup-shaped cor; anthers extrorse; pistils many, on an elongate receptacle, ripening into a cone of dry, samaroid, eventually deciduous frs; deciduous trees with simple, 4-lobed lvs and large but inconspicuously colored fls. 2, the other in e. Asia.

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

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