THE MATURE TULIP POPLAR (Liriodendron tulipfera), if given the space to spread and more than 75 years of growth, is a magnificent tree. Its truncate-retuse leaves look like heraldic emblems. They turn lemon yellow in the fall and make a splattering sound as they hit the ground, as if someone is pouring splotches of yellow paint. A few days later,  the leaves are brown. They bring to mind these words from Robert Frost’s poem “Reluctance:”

Ah, when to the heart of man
     Was it ever less than treason
To go with the drift of things,
      To yield with a grace to reason,
And bow and accept the end
      Of a love or a season?

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