Tulip Tree

Note Profile

Botanical

About

Tulip tree is Liriodendron tulipifera, a Magnoliaceae tree named for the shape of its flowers. It is not a tulip. The only olfactive records are 19th-century pharmacognosy of the bark and flower buds, which describe an oil that opens between lemon and bergamot and turns turpentine-like on standing, plus a handful of lay accounts of the fresh bloom that do not agree with each other. The vector is wide and the confidence is low on purpose.

Scent Profile

Dry_woody leads because both editions of King's Dispensatory agree on the one word they repeat: turpentine-like, a terebinthinate wood-resin odour the oil settles into on exposure. Citrus is nearly level with it and is the better-attested claim in a single sentence - the fresh oil smells 'intermediate between lemon and bergamot', or of 'a mixture of orange, lemon and bergamot'. Amber_resinous is the other half of turpentine, the pine-resin side rather than the timber side; the two split a descriptor that has no clean home among the 32 facets. Floral and tropical come only from lay accounts of the bloom, one calling it 'heavenly' and one 'mildly of tropical fruit - mango, papaya, guava'; both sit low with wide spreads because those observers contradict each other. Aromatic_herbal is the repeated bare word 'aromatic' in the materia medica, which asserts a smell without naming one. Fresh_spice records one reader's 'fleeting peppery, almost spicey'.

ScentWheel

Breadthbroad

EnvelopeTop · ~2h lasting

Family Woody & Earthy, Fresh & Citrus

Read off the wheel, not a label applied to the note.

Origin

Bark, root bark and flower buds of Liriodendron tulipifera, a large North American hardwood in the magnolia family. King's American Dispensatory describes the volatile oil of the bark and buds. No commercial essential oil, absolute or accord under this name was found from any supplier.

Usage in Perfumery

Rare. Parfumo records two placements across two brands and Fragrantica records none. There is no evidence of a traded raw material, so listings are most likely evocative rather than built on an extract.