MAGNOLIA TREE

Magnolia is a large genus of about 210 flowering plant species in the subfamily Magnolioideae of the family Magnoliaceae. The natural range of Magnolia Tree is rather scattered and includes eastern North America, Central America and the West Indies and east and southeast Asia. Some species are found in South America. Today many species of Magnolia and an ever increasing number of hybrids can also be found as ornamentals in large parts of North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. The genus is named after French botanist Pierre Magnol, from Montpellier. See Origin of the name Magnolia. Magnolia is an ancient genus. Having evolved before bees appeared, the flowers developed to encourage pollination by beetles. As a result, the carpels of Magnolia flowers are tough, to avoid damage by eating and crawling beetles. Fossilised specimens of M. acuminata have been found dating to 20 million years ago, and of plants identifiably belonging to the Magnoliaceae dating back to 95 million years ago. Another primitive aspect of Magnolias is their lack of distinct sepals or petals. The term tepal has been coined to refer to the intermediate element that Magnolia has instead. Magnolias are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Giant Leopard Moth. Magnolia grandiflora is the official state flower of both Mississippi and Louisiana. The flower's abundance in Mississippi is reflected in its state nickname, "Magnolia State". The magnolia is also the official state tree of Mississippi. One of the oldest nicknames for Houston, Texas Is "The Magnolia City" due to the abundance of Magnolias growing along Buffalo Bayou.

Origin of the name Magnolia:
In 1703 Charles Plumier (1646-1704) described a flowering tree from the island of Martinique in his Genera. He gave the species, known locally as 'Talauma', the genus name Magnolia, after Pierre Magnol. The English botanist William Sherard, who studied botany in Paris under Joseph Pitton de Tournefort, a pupil of Magnol, was most probably the first after Plumier to adopt the genus name Magnolia. He was at least responsible for the taxonomic part of Johann Jacob Dillenius's Hortus Elthamensis and of Mark Catesby's famous Natural history of Carolina. These were the first works after Plumier's Genera that used the name Magnolia, this time for some species of flowering trees from temperate North America. Carolus Linnaeus, who was familiar with Plumier's Genera, adopted the genus name Magnolia in 1735 in his first edition of Systema naturae, without a description but with a reference to Plumier's work. In 1753, he took up Plumier's Magnolia in the first edition of Species plantarum. Since Linnaeus never saw a herbarium specimen (if there has ever been one) of Plumier's Magnolia and had only his description and a rather poor picture at hand, he must have taken it for the same plant which was described by Catesby in his 1730 'Natural History of Carolina, and placed it in the synonymy of Magnolia virginiana variety foetida, the taxon now known as Magnolia grandiflora. The species that Plumier originally named Magnolia was later described as Annona dodecapetala by Lamarck, and has since been named Magnolia plumieri and Talauma plumieri (and still a number of other names) but is now known as Magnolia dodecapetala.

The Tree: A Natural History of What Trees Are, How They Live, and Why They Matter

Early references and descriptions of the Magnolia Tree:
Magnolias have long been known and used in China. References to their medicinal qualities go back to as early as 1083. After the Spanish conquest of Mexico, Philip II commissioned his court physician Francisco Hernandez in 1570 to undertake a scientific expedition. Hernandez made numerous descriptions of plants, accompanied by drawings, but publication was delayed and hampered by a number of consecutive accidents. Between 1629 and 1651 the material was re-edited by members of the Academy of Lincei and issued (1651) in three editions as Nova plantarum historia Mexicana. This work contains a drawing of a plant under the vernacular name Eloxochitl, that is almost certainly Magnolia dealbata Magnolia macrophylla subsp. dealbata). This must have been the first-ever description of a Magnolia that came to the Western World. It is unclear whether there are early descriptions made by English or French missionaries that were sent to North America but the first introduction of a Magnolia into Europe is well documented. It was the missionary and plant collector John Bannister (1654-1693) who sent back Laurus tulipifera, foliis subtus ex cinereo aut argenteo purpurascentibus from Virginia in 1688, to Henry Compton, the Bishop of London. This species is now known as Magnolia virginiana (Sweetbay magnolia). Thus the first Magnolia had already found its way to Europe before Charles Plumier discovered his Talauma on Martinique and gave it the name Magnolia.

Nomenclature and classification of the Magnolia Tree:
When Linnaeus took up Magnolia in his Species plantarum (1753), he created a lemma of only one species: Magnolia virginiana. Under that species he described five varieties (glauca, foetida, grisea, tripetala and acuminata). In the tenth edition of Systema naturae (1759), he merged grisea with glauca, and raised the four remaining varieties to specific status. By the end of the 18th century, botanists and plant hunters exploring Asia began to name and describe the Magnolia species from China and Japan. The first Asiatic species to be described by western botanists were Magnolia denudata and Magnolia liliiflora, and Magnolia coco and Magnolia figo. Soon after that, in 1794, Carl Peter Thunberg collected and described Magnolia obovata from Japan and, within a close proximity to that period, Magnolia kobus was also first collected. With the number of species increasing, the genus was divided into subgenus Magnolia, and subgenus Yulania. Magnolia contains the American evergreen species Magnolia grandiflora, which is of horticultural importance, especially in the United States, and Magnolia virginiana, the type species. Yulania contains several deciduous Asiatic species, such as Magnolia denudata and Magnolia kobus, which have become horticulturally important in their own right and as parents in hybrids. Classified in Yulania, is also the American deciduous Magnolia acuminata, which has recently attained greater status as the parent which is responsible for the yellow flower colour in many new hybrids. Relations in the family Magnoliaceae have been puzzling taxonomists for a long time. Because the family is quite old and has survived many geological events (such as ice ages, mountain formation and continental drift), its distribution has become scattered. Some species or groups of species have been isolated for a long time, while others could stay in close contact. To create divisions in the family (or even within the genus Magnolia), solely based upon morphological characters, has proven to be a near impossible task. By the end of the 20th century, DNA sequencing had become available as a method of large scale research on phylogenetic relationships. Several studies, including studies on many species in the family Magnoliaceae, were carried out to investigate relationships. What these studies all revealed was that genus Michelia and Magnolia subgenus Yulania were far more closely allied to each other than either one of them was to Magnolia subgenus Magnolia. These phylogenetic studies were supported by morphological data.



Selected species of of the Magnolia Tree:
Note: the following list only includes temperate species; many other species occur in tropical areas.

Magnolia subgenus Magnolia: Anthers open by splitting at the front facing the centre of the flower. Deciduous or evergreen. Flowers produced after the leaves.
Magnolia delavayi - Chinese evergreen magnolia
Magnolia fraseri - Fraser magnolia
Magnolia globosa - Globe magnolia
Magnolia grandiflora - Southern magnolia or bull bay
Magnolia guatemalensis - Guatemalan magnolia
Magnolia macrophylla - Bigleaf magnolia
Magnolia macrophylla subsp. ashei - Ashe magnolia
Magnolia macrophylla subsp. dealbata - Mexican bigleaf magnolia
Magnolia nitida
Magnolia obovata - Japanese bigleaf magnolia
Magnolia officinalis - Houpu magnolia
Magnolia sieboldii - Siebold's magnolia
Magnolia tripetala - Umbrella magnolia
Magnolia virginiana - Sweetbay magnolia
Magnolia wilsonii - Wilson's magnolia
Magnolia subgenus Yulania: Anthers open by splitting at the sides. Deciduous. Flowers mostly produced before leaves (except M. acuminata).
Magnolia acuminata - Cucumber tree
Magnolia amoena
Magnolia biondii
Magnolia campbellii - Campbell's magnolia
Magnolia cylindrica
Magnolia dawsoniana - Dawson's magnolia
Magnolia denudata - Yulan magnolia
Magnolia hypoleuca - Whitebark Magnolia
Magnolia kobus - Kobushi magnolia
Magnolia liliiflora - Mulan magnolia
Magnolia salicifolia - Willow-leafed magnolia
Magnolia sargentiana - Sargent's magnolia
Magnolia sprengeri - Sprenger's magnolia
Magnolia stellata - Star magnolia
Magnolia zenii
Other
Magnolia hodgsonii
Magnolia sirindhorniae - Princess Sirindhorn's magnolia.

Uses In general, Magnolia is a genus which has attracted a lot of horticultural interest. Hybridisation has been immensely successful in combining the best aspects of different species to give plants which flower at an earlier age than the species themselves, as well as having more impressive flowers. One of the most popular garden magnolias is a hybrid, M. x soulangeana (Saucer magnolia; hybrid M. liliiflora x M. denudata).

Medicinal uses of the Magnolia Tree:
The bark from M. officinalis has long been used in traditional Chinese medicine, where it is known as hou po. In Japan, koboku, M. obovata has been used in a similar manner. The aromatic bark contains magnolol and honokiol, two polyphenolic compounds that have demonstrated anti-anxiety and anti-angiogenic properties. Magnolia bark also has been shown to reduce allergic and asthmatic reactions. Magnolia has attracted the interest of the dental research community because magnolia bark extract inhibits many of the bacteria responsible for caries and periodontal disease. In addition, the constituent magnolol interferes with the action of glucosyltransferase, an enzyme needed for the formation of bacterial plaque.



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