grand flora

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Somehow, you know summer is almost here when the Southern magnolia begin to bloom.

In East Tennessee, we have seven species of magnolia: cucumber, umbrella, bigleaf, Fraser, sweetbay, Southern and tuliptee, but it’s the Southern magnolia with its enormous (up to 12 inches in diameter) citronella-scented white flowers that is so associated with the Deep South and sultry, hot afternoons; it's the polished, aristocrat of Southern trees. The evergreen with large glossy leaves was often planted near the house, where with a pitcher of fresh-squeezed lemonade, it could be admired from the shade of the front porch.

In 1703, Charles Plumier described a flowering tree from the island of Martinique. Plumier gave the species, known locally as “Talauma,” the genus name Magnolia, to honor renowned French botanist Pierre Magnol from Montpellier, thus establishing the generic name for the group.

Three decades later, in his “Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands,” published between 1731 and 1743, English naturalist Mark Catesby writes about a tree he found in his travels in the New World. He called the tree Magnolia virginiana. Today the Southern magnolia that grows from coastal Virginia to Florida and across the Gulf Coast states is known as Magnolia grandiflora, or "Magnolia with the large flowers." Simply put.

Indeed, no other tree in this region has a flower so enormous and satisfyingly grand.


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but one tree

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If you could have but one tree in your yard near your home, but one tree to look at through the window when you were ill, but one tree to sit beside when your life is grand or not so, what would that one tree be?

Speak now. What would your tree be?

For me, it would be a Southern magnolia, green and beautiful 365 days, season to season to season. Voluptuous fecund blossoms in the spring. Crimson seeds in the fall. And at this of the year, the leaves develop the most lovely cinnamon-colored patina.

Goodness. But one tree.

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fire engine red

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Truth is, before I started this blog I believed that sweet gums or oaks were my favorite trees but the group that I keep coming back to time and time again are the magnolias. The ancient magnolias that have been around longer than bees, which is why they are pollinated by beetles. (Some plants in the Magnoliaceae family go back perhaps as much as 95 million years.)

Most species native to our area are deciduous but not all. I've posted about the evergreen Southern magnolia before, now they are producing seeds. Fire engine red seeds! Wow.

-Photo taken at Ijams Nature Center.

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seed time

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Four months ago, I blogged about the Southern magnolia with its enormous citronella-scented white flowers that are so associated with the Deep South and sultry, hot afternoons; it's the polished, aristocrat of Southern trees. (See June 9 posting)

Well, the hot summer afternoons are gone for another year, perhaps you miss them, perhaps you don’t. It’s mid-October and we find that the tree is now presenting its bright red seeds. They are as eye-catching as the grand flowers were.

The one I photographed is on the Homesite at Ijams Nature Center.

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