This plant is growing in my shade bed but I don't know if I planted it there or if it's some kind of weed. It never has flowered and never gets taller than what you see.

It's been years since I learned how to ID one and I may have forgotten key bits, but is that possibly a sassafrass tree?

I used to dig those up, in my childhood, to get the roots to make tea...

Kabby said:and never gets taller than what you see.

It looks like a Tulip tree seedling. Are you sure it dies back to the ground each winter? How old is it that it never gets any taller?

Well let's see it was there last yr, it does die down in the winter. The previous 4 yrs I ignored my gardens so it may or may not have appeared then. It was not there before my garden exile.( 2010)

tulip tree/Liriodendron tulipifera.
Maybe someone or something is cutting it back or chewing it down because it should start to grow to be about 60 feet tall.

Kabby said:This plant is growing in my shade bed but I don't know if I planted it there or if it's some kind of weed. It never has flowered and never gets taller than what you see.

• Tulip Poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera)
• Uploaded by Calif_Sue

http://identifythatplant.com/y...
http://www.havlis.cz/img/1232_...

I'd like to know where the bird that dropped those seeds has been. Thank you everyone, I'll have to get a more primo place in the yard next yr for it to prosper. And then wrap flagging tape around it, then a hogwire tomato cage. My husband takes no prisoners when mowing. He's already wiped out two sycamore seedlings this spring.

I had the same problem with my Dad when I was a kid. I finally resorted to six pipes in a circle, driven deeply into the ground.

FYI, the seeds are wind dispersed. It's probably a little different down in Alabama, but here in the far north, the seeds fly off in late fall and winter.

tulip trees have very invasive root systems. Make sure it is in a spot you really want it, not too close to your house or any garden areas. They grow quickly.

@Leftwood I wikied the tulip poplar, tallest eastern hardwood it said. I don't know how the reigning matriarch in my yard, my remaining cherry bark oak will take this. Her name is Bertha Butts. Tulip tree grows fast, maybe 15 yrs to flower. Hope I'm around!
@frillylily maybe I can put this tree in one of the holes from the former sycamores.