Magnolia grandiflora
Common name: 
Southern Magnolia
Bullbay
Pronunciation: 
mag-NO-li-a gran-di-FLO-ra
Family: 
Magnoliaceae
Genus: 
Type: 
Broadleaf
Native to (or naturalized in) Oregon: 
No
  • Evergreen tree, 60-80 ft, (18-24 m), dense, stately.  Leaves alternate, simple, large (13-25 cm long), glossy green above, often cinnamon brown "felt" on underside.  Flowers are large (20-30 cm across), perfect, creamy-white, fragrant, usually with 6 petals, start to appear in late spring.  Fruits are rose-red, aggregates of follicles, 7.5-15 cm long, ripening in fall.
  • Sun, best in partial shade.  Plant in rich, porous, somewhat acid soil.  Protect from winter winds and sun in northern areas.
  • Hardy to USDA Zone (6)7     Native from North Carolina to Florida and Texas.  The State Tree of Mississippi.
  • A large number of cultivars, well over 125 (Dirr, 1998), some of the more common ones include:
    • ‘D. D. Blanchard’  -  to 50 ft × 30 ft (15 × 9 m), pyramidal shape, leaves glossy dark green, underside orangish-brown.
    • ‘Edith Bougue’  -  to 35 ft × 20 ft (11 × 6 m), vigorous, considered one of the hardiest selections, leaves glossy dark green and narrow.
    • ‘Little Gem’  -  to 20-25 ft × 10-15 ft (6-7.6 × 3-4.5 m), small and narrow, tends to grow as a shrub, can be trained as a tree, also used as a container plant, leaves and flowers smaller than species type.
    • ‘Majestic Beauty’  -  to 35-50 ft × 20 ft (11-15 × 6 m), pyramidal, dense, large flowers (about 30 cm wide), leaves large and thick.
    • ‘Russet’  -  to 80 ft × 20 ft (24 × 6 m), fast growing and narrow, dense, leaves narrow and wooly underside russet colored.
    • ‘Samuel Sommer’  -  to 40 ft × 30 ft (12 × 9 m), very large flowers, leaves large, dark glossy green, rusty red on the underside.
    • ‘San Marino’  -  to 25 ft × 20 ft (7.6 × 6 m), many small flowers (about 4 inches wide), dense foliage to the ground, can be grown as a large shrub.
    • ‘St. Mary’  -  to 20+ ft × 20 ft (6 m × 6 m), a dense shrub, can be trained to a small tree, a good container plant, produces many flowers, 20-25 cm wide.
    • ‘Victoria’  -  to 20 ft × 15 ft (6 × 4.5 m), leaves dark green, broad, reportedly hardy to -10o F.  Sometimes reported as coming from Victoria, British Columbia, but Jacobson (1996) states that its origin is unknown and has been in commerce since the 1920s.
  • grandiflora: large-flowered
  • Corvallis: north side of Central Park
  • Oregon State Univ. campus: northeast Sackett Hall.

 

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    plant habit

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    leaves and flower bud

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    plant habit, flowering

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    leaves and flower

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    leaves

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    flower

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    center of flower

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    leaves and fruit

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    immature fruit

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    leaves and mature fruit

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    trunk, bark