I give you the Tuliptree. I don't like to play favorites, but there is no other tree that I delight in so. Tall and straight, with unique leaves, and perhaps the most beautiful flowers of any true forest tree of eastern North America.
From mid to late May, the crowns of the trees are full of blossoms, but they are borne high aloft, for the most part. The green and orange flowers are abundant, yet hard to see. I first bought a binocular for the express purpose of viewing them. These pictures give some idea of their dignified majesty; spectacular yet reticent, but mostly I had to turn to fallen blooms.