Can tulip wood be used for outside wood or fence posts?

What other woods are used for fence posts?

Is tulip also called gum in the Northeast?

Tulip poplar is an east coast tree. The wood rots with alacrity.

It can be used for fence posts, which might last a year.

As for what Y*nkees call Tulip poplar - who knows, who cares - they are stupid and probably can't tell their gum from a hole in the ground.

But there are sweetgum trees around here in the southeast - liquidambar styraciflua.

Get to know your trees - if you are going to work with wood, learn what you are working with.

Ken,

What Sam I am meant to say if he wasn't so full of himself, is that Tuliptree, also known as yellow poplar and tulip poplar, isn't durable, i.e. not much decay resistance. Best bet for fenceposts - Osage orange, also known as hedge-orange, or "bowdart" if you live where they do. Next best, and still pretty good, is black locust. Chestnut used to be a favorite, of course. Everything else pretty much second best after that. Treated SYP posts probably the way to go if hedge or locust not available.

Osage orange is also known as bois d'arc. Sometimes called "bodark". No one who knows trees calls it "bodart".

Black locust is also an excellent choice.

Don't forget eastern red cedar it makes great fence post and no tulip poplar is not known as gum.

Hahaha, I got kind of a kick out of the responses.
Tulip poplar, or when you order it from your wholesaler it will be just called poplar. It is not a good choice for any exterior woodwork, let alone contact with the soil.
I have read that osage orange is a good wood to use when in contact with the soil. Personally I have never used it or have ever even seen it offered for sale through my suppliers.
Our Southern Gent is correct Tulip poplar is not a member of the gum family. Here in the NE gum it's not a commercially valuable wood so it is not readily available.
Then again "tulip poplar" is not a member of the poplar family either and no cabinetmaker is stupid for not knowing that !
Common names of trees variry from location to location and do not always represent the lumber. During the turn of the century (19th to 20th) what we call tulip poplar wood was call in some locations whitewood.
Horse Chestnut is not a Chestnut tree but a Buckeye, American Sycamore is not a Sycamore but a Plane (tree). What you may buy as English Sycamore is actually a maple, with a curly figure. Black Gum lumber is actually Tupelo!
The only true poplars in America are called Cottonwood and Aspen, go figure.
That is why species were given latin names.
When you buy oak it is either red or white, Maple, soft or hard. No one orders 500 bdft of Pin Oak or Sugar Maple.
I think that was a legitimate question not a stupid one.
I'm not a Yankee fan, I'm a Phillies fan, Philadelphia PA so that makes me a Yankee.

Just a comment from the Missouri Ozarks. The settlers used tulip poplar quite a bit in barns. It withstood rot better than white oak or red oak, the two other woods used the most. But, there was a big difference. Tulip poplar heartwood is surprisingly rot resistant. Tulip poplar sapwood rots really quickly. The old growth tulip had a narrow sapwood band that they sawed off when milling. Today's tulip poplar is grown quickly and has lots of sapwood. Avoid tulip poplar for any applications where it gets wet.

How common is tulip wood in Australia? I have clients who have requested it but I havent come across it before at www.shirelandscaping.com.au

http://www.shirelandscaping.com.au