Southern Magnolia: Magnolia grandiflora
One of great joys of growing up in the south was that every June of being able to cup a huge white magnolia blossom in my hand, slowly dipping my face into it, and drawing a deep rich pungent sweet breath. Even as a child I loved to do that. There is nothing quite like that sweet powerful burst of pure southern fragrance! Next to Tea Olive, Magnolia is my favorite fragrance, and this week in late May 2006 in Greensboro, NC, the Magnolia’s are starting to bloom!
Magnolias offered other joys for me as a child. Since they are perhaps the easiest of trees to climb, the branches going straight out from the trunk with no smaller or sub branches or other clutter near the trunk, they were great trees for which to learn tree climbing. And despite the dense growth of thick dark leaves, if you could just get high enough you could peer out between leaves and see the world, though that world could not very well see you. If the lower Magnolia limbs are allowed to grow as they like all the way to the ground, they make the base of the Magnolia inside of the ring of green a great hide out and fort for a young explorer!
Southern Magnolia is a tropical tree, evergreen, with large heavy leaves, up to ten inches long, glossy/waxy green on top, whitish and hairy on the underside, somewhat convex (and making fine little boats for floating down streams with little green plastic army men along for the ride). Magnolia bark is grayish and smooth. Magnolia trees can grow to upwards of a hundred feet, but they are slow growing trees. A little book I own called “Plants of Colonial Days” by Raymond L. Taylor tells me that the name “magnolia” came from Pierre Magnol “professor of medicine and director of the botanical gardens, MontpelierFrance.” “Grandiflora” of course just means “large flowers.”
Inside the large white bloom is an odd looking stalk that will later become the familiar Magnolia cone. At the top section of this stalk and encircling it are the female parts of the flower, the carpel or stigma, which contains the pistil (where the pollen is received) and the style which leads down to the ovaries. This large clump of female flower parts at the end of the cone stalk is often greenish gold in color. Toward the base of the cone stalk and also encircling it are the long straight stamens, the male flowers, whitish overall but purplish at the bottoms. The combination of the clump of female flower parts at the top of the cone and male flower parts at the bottom of the cone give to the whole a somewhat pineapple appearance.
But this all changes as the summer progresses. As the female flower parts are fertilized, the stamens begin to drop off. Sometimes, before the large outward white petals and sepals fall away, and after a rain, these stamen parts can be seen floating around in the large flower bowl. But eventually both the stamen and the larger white magnolia blossom fall away, leaving just the cone. The cone itself fattens and lengthens, and the bright red seeds appear, and nestled half way within small pockets in the cone. In time the seeds loosen and detach from the cone, held only by threads, which make them often dangle in the wind before they break free or are eaten.
Eventually birds and small mammals eat the bright red seeds and disperse them to germinate away from the parent tree. As kids in South Carolina we used to enjoy picking these hard magnolia cones with their red seeds and using them in our various neighborhood wars, along of course with the ubiquitous pine cones. Magnolia cones were second in favor only to green pine cones in our arsenal of favorite weapons! (Rocks were not permitted!)
Southern Magnolias produce a deep shade, and since nothing much can grown under them it is often best just to let their lower branches rest on the ground.
As a nursery tree, there are many many varieties of Southern Magnolia available for planting.
Magnolias are scattered all over Greensboro. My two favorite stands of Magnolia are the ones on West Bessemer just up the hill from Cridland Road, and the great rows of Magnolia lining the quad at BennettCollege. If you’ve never stood at the end of the quad at BennettCollege, you should. It is one of the loveliest sights in our fair county.
The largest Southern Magnolia in Guilford County, according to the Treasure Trees program, is 78 feet tall, with a trunk diameter of 4 ½ feet and a limb spread of 32 feet, on the property of Vernon Brady in Gibsonville.
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