Poplar surprise

I finished splitting my 6th cord this weekend with my first oak log and some poplar that I took down near the wood pile. The oak was definitely a bit tougher than the maple and beech I've been mostly dealing with. I expected the poplar to be a breeze. Nope... The only log that's been tougher for me was hornbeam. I'm guessing it must have been tough due to the amount of figure in the wood. I've never seen poplar this beautiful. Had I known it was like is before cutting into rounds, I think I would have saved a length to make something with. Gorgeous! It makes me wonder what other gems have been found by all of us once it was too late.

I did some googling for it. Came across a few articles about someone who had one and tried to propagate the parent tree and build a market for it. The pictures that came with it had figure similar to quarter sawn oak. I checked ebay etc and saw some guitar blanks that looked like they were more from a burl than a tiger variety. (They were getting/asking about $20 a bd ft). His wood seems more like a tiger maple....I could find nothing like it. I'm sure it's out there.

Needless to say, I walked around the stand looking for the same bark signature....nothing. So, now I'll just delude myself into thinking I killed the one and only ultra valuable poplar tree in the world. I coulda been a millionaire.