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Magnificent Magnolias

© Mel. White

Perhaps no tree so evokes the South and Southern tradition like the magnificent magnolia. Its fragrant white blooms speak of Southern belles like Scarlett O'Hara and merry mockingbirds that dart from tree to tree.

Surprisingly, this is a fairly old tree family - one that survived through the ages so successfully that its descendants are found throughout the warmer parts of the world. There are about 80 species of trees and shrubs in the magnolia family. Native magnolias are found in the southern and eastern United States, West Indies, Venezuela, Asia (including the Himalayas), Japan, Indonesia, and the Philippines.

As you might suspect from such a global plant, the lordly magnolia in all its forms has more aliases than a hit man in a witness protection program: black linn, blue magnolia, cucumber magnolia, cumbertree, cucumberwood, elkwood, mountain magnolia, pointed-leaved magnolia, yellow cucumbertree, yellow-flower magnolia, yellow linn, yellow poplar, wahoo, ashe magnolia, sandhill magnolia, Fraser magnolia,Indian bitters, Indian physic, long-leaf cucumbertree, mountain magnolia, mountain-oread, North Carolina bay-tree, water-lilly-tree, bat-tree, bull-bay, big-laurel, evergreen magnolia, great laurel, large-flower magnolia, laurel, laurel bay, sweet magnolia, big-bloom, cowcumber, elkbark, longleaf cucumber, pyramid magnolia, royal-oread, silverleaf magnolia, southern cucumbertree, umbrella-tree, swamp-laurel, swamp magnolia, swamp sassafras, sweetbay magnolia, Virginia magnolia, white-bay, white-laurel - and others that I was just too tired to list.

This tree, which was named in honor of Pierre Magnol, director of the botanic gardens at Montpellier in France, is a water-loving plant. Originally found in or near bogs or swamps, magnolias like moist, slightly acid soil. If you don't live in or near an area of high rainfall or near a pond or stream, you will need to water your magnolia frequently.

These hardy plants are a wonderful choice for wildscaping, for they provide food for a host of insects and birds including the mockingbird, robin, thrush, and vireo. Squirrels and mice also find the seeds tasty. The wood (which is often sold as "yellow poplar") is used commercially in cabinet making, for plywood, furniture, boxes, and interior trim. Magnolia grandiflora and Magnolia denudata flowers can be used in cooking recipes according to Cooking with Flowers by Jenny Leggatt.

Another use for magnolia is in aromatherapy. According to some of the manufacturers who sell these essences, the odor is particularly calming. Magnolia essence is used to help cure insomnia and also as an energy booster.

Magnolias still grow wild throughout the United States. Oxon Run Magnolia Bog is a wonderful example of the old Eastern Seaboard environment. This is the only magnolia bog in the Washington D.C. area, and the only one in the National Park Service. The few magnolia bogs that still remain along the Atlantic Coastal Plain provide important habitats for rare plants such as the southern twayblade orchid, royal fern, bog sumac, and highbush blueberry as well as food and homes for endangered birds.