South American Plants - Magnolia

Name - Pierre Magnol was a French botanist, born in Montpellier, where he lived and worked for the biggest part of his life. He eventually became Professor of Botany and Director of the Royal Botanic Garden of Montpellier and is of lasting importance because he was one of the innovators of the current botanical scheme of classification. He was the first to publish the concept of plant families as we know them, a natural classification, in which groups of plant with associated common features were described. In 1703, Charles Plumier gave a flowering tree from the island of Martinique the genus name Magnolia, after Magnol.

Description – this is a truly an ancient species which evolved before bees appeared, so the magnolia’s flowers evolved to encourage pollination by beetles. As a result, the carpels of Magnolia flowers are as tough as leather, simply to avoid damage by crawling (and nibbling) beetles. Another primitive feature of Magnolias is their lack of distinct sepals or petals. The term tepal has been coined to refer to the intermediate white-coloured but leathery element which is neither petal nor sepal and is only found in the Magnolia. Hybrids such as the tulipa tend to have pink petals and a more goblet like shape, while the stellata has tiny white star shaped flowers.

Origin - The magnolia itself is a fascinating tree. The grandiflora has a scent that makes all insects drunk, and can even reduce some people to an intoxicated state. To grow magnolia successfully, you need to find a site in your garden where your soil is free-draining and dig in lots of compost or well rotted manure as magnolias do not like waterlogged soil. They prefer a site in sun to partial shade and you need to consider that some species may need protection from frost in certain areas. Remember some magnolias are very big indeed, a grandiflora will comfortably top fifty feet! Because magnolias have fleshy roots and do not like them to be damaged, you need to take care when planting and only buy pot grown plants – bare rooted ones will simply not thrive. Above all, once the plant is in the ground remember to not dig over the soil around the roots or you could kill even a mature tree. In winter, brush any snow off magnolias to prevent limbs snapping under the weight.

South American magnolia photograph by hart curt, used under a creative commons attribution licence

 

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