photo by Lynn Yenkey
This fantastic flower was produced on a tree at what we here in Columbia call the Belser Arboretum, a seven-acre (or so) tract of forested land pretty much in the middle of the city, and two blocks from my home. The Arboretum was bequeathed to the University of South Carolina in 1959 by William Gordon Belser, a Columbia resident and owner of the property, for the purpose of providing field experience and training for botany students. As arboreta go, seven acres is not particularly large. Nevertheless, the Belser Arboretum offers a surprising assemblage of natural habitats characteristic of pre-settlement Columbia, and now boasts quite an assortment of plant species. It is a remarkable place for its size, and its able and continuing management has made it one of the little-known treasures of our urban setting.
Back to this fantastic flower. I’ll go ahead and tell you that this is a deciduous species of the genus Magnolia; it was planted here. There are probably 100 or so different species of Magnolia around the world. Eight of them occur in North America, and of these, two species are evergreen: M. grandiflora, “Southern magnolia,” and M. virginiana, “sweet bay.” The others are deciduous; promptly losing their leaves when the time comes at the end of the growing season.
Our mysterious magnolia is a smallish tree, usually with a single, slender trunk. It doesn’t seem to be very common within its natural geographic range, which seems to be centered in Alabama and Mississippi (and Louisiana), up through Tennessee and Kentucky, with outlying populations in the Carolinas, Arkansas and Ohio. It likes to grow on shady, forested slopes, commonly near streams. Its leaves are remarkably large, and it is no exaggeration to say that of all the plants of North America with simple leaves, this species has the largest, sometimes easily over three feet long. The leaves are chalky white beneath, and the base of the leaf generally exhibits two rounded auricle, something like ear lobes. The flowers are huge, with six conspicuous white tepals, and they too are the largest of this continent’s native flora. Plus, they are very fragrant, a sort of flowery/peppery/spicy scent. Each flower lasts but two days. The first day it is open, it retains a rather tightly upright cup shape, opening widely the second day, and attracting a variety of insects. The flower will start to turn brown on the third day, soon shriveling up and falling apart. Its red seeds will be produced in a rounded cone.
This species is rather easily available in the trade, if you have the right place for it. The way I understand it, horticulturalists grow it from seed or from stem cuttings as ways of propagating it for sale. As always, when purchasing native plant species, be sure to make sure that they are sustainably grown and marketed, and not collected from the wild.
You can find additional excellent information on this plant from the nice people at the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University: https://arboretum.harvard.edu/plant-bios/bigleaf-magnolia/.
Answer: "Bigleaf magnolia," Magnolia macrophylla
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John Nelson is the retired curator of the A. C. Moore Herbarium at the University of South Carolina in Columbia SC. As a public service, the Herbarium offers free plant identifications. For more information, visit www.herbarium.orgor email johnbnelson@sc.rr.com.