During the steamiest days of summer, when most other trees are resolutely green and flower-free, Magnolia grandiflora opens her luminous petals. Come with us to learn a bit more about this fragrant flower.
The lovely Magnolia grandiflora ‘Edith Bogue’ is hardy to USDA zone 6.
Each white flower is open for about three days.
The white petals turn intriguingly sepia, then brown, as the flower ages.
Magnolia’s fruit is a cone-shaped aggregate of follicles.
The ripe, scarlet seeds studding the velvety follicetum (an aggregate fruit, botanically) are strikingly beautiful and intensely ornamental.
Seeds remain attached to the cone by a silken thread.
M. grandiflora (and other American magnolia species) has a history of Native American medicinal use that far precedes its botanical classification and naming (by Carl Linneaus, rather predictably).