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Magnolia is a large genus of about 210 to 340The number of species in the genus Magnolia depends on the taxonomic view that one takes up. Recent molecular and morphological research shows that former genera Talauma, Dugandiodendron, Manglietia, Michelia, Elmerrillia, Kmeria, Parakmeria, Pachylarnax (and a small number of monospecific genera) all belong within the same genus, Magnolia s.l. (s.l. = sensu lato: 'in a broad sense', as opposed to s.s. = sensu stricto: 'in a narrow sense'). The genus Magnolia s.s. contains about 120 species. See the section Nomenclature and classification in this article. flowering plant species in the subfamily Magnolioideae of the family Magnoliaceae. The natural range of Magnolia species is disjunct, with a main center in east, south and southeast Asia and a secondary center in eastern North America, Central America, the West Indies, and some species in South America.
Magnolias are evergreen or deciduous or known for their large, fragrant, bowl- or star-shaped flowers with numerous spirally arranged reproductive parts, producing cone-like fruits in autumn that open to reveal seeds. The genus Magnolia was first named in 1703 by Charles Plumier, honoring Pierre Magnol, with early taxonomy refined by Linnaeus in the 18th century based on and later species. Modern molecular phylogenetic studies have revealed complex relationships leading to taxonomic debates about merging related genera like Michelia with Magnolia. Magnolia species are valued horticulturally for their early and showy flowering, used culinarily in various edible forms, employed in traditional medicine for their bioactive compounds like magnolol and honokiol, and harvested for timber, with hybridization enhancing desirable traits.
Magnolia is an ancient genus that dates back the Cretaceous. Fossilized specimens of M. acuminata have been found dating to 20 million years ago (mya), and fossils of plants identifiably belonging to the Magnoliaceae date to 95 mya. They are theorized to have evolved to encourage pollination by as they existed prior to the evolution of Bee. Another aspect of Magnolia considered to represent an ancestral state is that the flower bud is enclosed in a bract rather than in Sepal; the perianth parts are undifferentiated and called rather than distinct sepals and . Magnolia shares the tepal characteristic with several other flowering plants near the base of the flowering plant lineage, such as Amborella and Nymphaea (as well as with many more recently derived plants, such as Lilium).
Magnolias are culturally significant symbols, serving as official flowers and trees in various regions like Shanghai, Mississippi, Louisiana, North Korea, and Seoul, and are closely associated with the Southern United States. In the arts, magnolias symbolize both beauty and resilience, as seen in the play and film Steel Magnolias, while also evoking the contrasting brutality of lynching in the song "Strange Fruit" and Southern stereotypes in political commentary.
As with all Magnoliaceae, the perianth is undifferentiated, with 9–15 tepals in three or more whorls. The flowers are Hermaphrodite, with numerous Adnation carpels and stamens arranged in a spiral fashion on the elongated receptacle. The flowers' carpels are often damaged by pollinating beetles.
The fruit dehisces along the dorsal sutures of the carpels. The pollen is monocolpate, and the embryonic development is of the Polygonum type. Taxonomists, including James E. Dandy in 1927, have used differences in the fruits of Magnoliaceae as the basis for classification systems.
Carl 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. He described a monotypic genus, with the sole species being Magnolia virginiana. Since Linnaeus never saw a herbarium specimen (if there ever was 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 that was described by Mark Catesby in his 1730 Natural History of Carolina. He placed it in the synonymy of Magnolia virginiana var. fœtida, the taxon now known as Magnolia grandiflora. Under Magnolia virginiana, Linnaeus described five varieties ( glauca, fœtida, grisea, tripetala, and acuminata). In the tenth edition of Systema Naturae (1759), he merged grisea with glauca and raised the four remaining varieties to species status. Magnolia glauca has the same type specimen as Magnolia virginiana and as the latter is the first valid name, the species is now called Magnolia virginiana (sweetbay magnolia). Var. fœtida was renamed Magnolia grandiflora, which is legitimate as the epithet fœtida only has priority in its rank of variety. Magnolia grandiflora is the southern magnolia. Magnolia tripetala (umbrella magnolia) and Magnolia acuminata (cucumber tree) are still recognized as species.
By the end of the 18th century, botanists and plant hunters exploring Asia had begun to name and describe the Magnolia species from China and Japan. The first Asiatic species to be described by western botanists were Magnolia denudata, Magnolia liliiflora,Under these names the species were described by Desrousseaux in Lamarck's Encyclopédie Méthodique Botanique, tome troisieme (1792): 675. In the beginning of the 20th century, descriptions which seemed to represent the same species, were found in a work of the French naturalist P.J. Buc'hoz, Plantes nouvellement découvertes (1779), under the names Lassonia heptapeta and Lassonia quinquepeta. In 1934, the English botanist J.E. Dandy argued that these names had priority over the names by which both species had been known for over a century and hence from then on Magnolia denudata had to be named Magnolia heptapeta, Magnolia liliiflora should be changed into Magnolia quinquepeta. After a lengthy debate, specialist taxonomists decided that the Buc'hoz's names were based on chimaeras (pictures constructed of elements of different species), and as Buc'hoz did not cite or preserve herbarium specimens, his names were ruled not to be acceptable. Magnolia coco, and Michelia figo.These species were published as Liriodendron coco and Liriodendron figo by J. de Loureiro in Flora Cochinchinensis (1790) and later (1817) transferred to Magnolia by A. P. de Candolle. Magnolia figo was soon after transferred to the genus Michelia. Soon after that, in 1794, Carl Peter Thunberg collected and described Magnolia obovata from Japan, and roughly at the same time Magnolia kobus was also first collected. Magnolia kobus only received its name in 1814, when it was validly published by A.P. de Candolle. There has been much confusion about earlier attempts to validly publish this species, especially because descriptions and type specimens did not match.
Relations in the family Magnoliaceae have puzzled 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 nearly impossible task.In 1927 J.E. Dandy accepted 10 genera in The genera of Magnoliaceae, Kew Bulletin 1927: 257–264. In 1984 Law Yuh-Wu proposed 15 in A preliminary study on the taxonomy of the family Magnoliaceae, Acta Phytotaxonomica Sinica 22: 89–109; in 2004 even 16, in Magnolias of China. This is not just about grouping some genera together where others do not; authors often choose different boundaries.
By the end of the 20th century, DNA sequencing had become available as a method of large-scale research on Phylogenetics. Several studies, including studies on many species in the family Magnoliaceae, were carried out to investigate relationships. What these studies all revealed was that the 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.Figlar, R.B. (2000), Proleptic branch initiation in Michelia and Magnolia subgenus Yulania provides basis for combinations in subfamily Magnolioideae. In: Liu Yu-hu et al., Proceedings of the International Symposium on the Family Magnoliaceae: 14–25, Science Press, Beijing.
As nomenclature is supposed to reflect relationships, the situation with the species names in Michelia and Magnolia subgenus Yulania was undesirable. Taxonomically, three choices are available:
Magnolia subgenus Magnolia cannot be renamed because it contains M. virginiana, the type species of the genus and of the family.
Not many Michelia species have so far become horticulturally or economically important, apart from their wood. Both subgenus Magnolia and subgenus Yulania include species of major horticultural importance, and a change of name would be very undesirable for many people, especially in the horticultural branch. In Europe, Magnolia is even more or less a synonym for Yulania, since most of the cultivated species on this continent have Magnolia (Yulania) denudata as one of their parents. Most taxonomists who acknowledge close relations between Yulania and Michelia therefore support the third option and join Michelia with Magnolia.
The same goes, mutatis mutandis, for the (former) genera Talauma and Dugandiodendron, which are then placed in subgenus Magnolia, and genus Manglietia, which could be joined with subgenus Magnolia or may even earn the status of an extra subgenus. Elmerrillia seems to be closely related to Michelia and Yulania, in which case it will most likely be treated in the same way as Michelia is now. The precise nomenclatural status of small or monospecific genera like Kmeria, Parakmeria, Pachylarnax, Manglietiastrum, Aromadendron, Woonyoungia, Alcimandra, Paramichelia, and Tsoongiodendron remains uncertain. Taxonomists who merge Michelia into Magnolia tend to merge these small genera into Magnolia s.l. as well. Botanists do not agree on whether to recognize a big Magnolia or the different small genera. For example, Flora of China offers two choices: a large genus Magnolia, which includes about 300 species and everything in the Magnoliaceae except Liriodendron (tulip tree), or 16 different genera, some of them recently split out or re-recognized, each of which contains up to 50 species. 4. Magnoliaceae, Flora of China The western co-author favors the big genus Magnolia, whereas the Chinese recognize the different small genera.
New species of Magnolia are still being discovered today. In 2014, researchers discovered Magnolia vargasiana and Magnolia llangantensis in Ecuador’s Cordillera Llanganates, within the Río Zuñac Reserve at 2000 meters elevation. The Río Zuñac Reserve is a privately protected conservation area in Ecuador, managed by the EcoMinga Foundation. This newly identified tree species grows between 11 and 26 meters tall and features sub-orbicular leaves, creamy white petals, and a pollination system involving flea beetles. Found during a vegetation survey, its limited distribution and low population density place it at risk of extinction.
The table below compares the 2012 and 2020 classifications. (The circumscriptions of the corresponding taxa may not be the same.)
| + Comparison of two classifications of Magnolia | |
| Talauma | Splendentes |
| Cubenses | |
| Talauma | |
| Gwillimia | Gwillimia |
| Blumiana | |
| Tuliparia | |
| Macrophylla | |
| Magnolia | |
| Rhytidospermum | Oyama |
| Rytidospermum | |
| Manglietia | |
| Kmeria | |
| Gynopodium | |
| Manglietiastrum | |
| Yulania | Yulania |
| Tulipastrum | |
| Michelia | Maingola |
| Aromadendron | |
| Michelia | |
| Elmerrillia | |
Hybridisation has been immensely successful in combining the best aspects of different species to give plants which flower at an earlier age than the parent species, as well as having more impressive flowers. One of the most popular garden magnolias, M. × soulangeana, is a hybrid of M. liliiflora and M. denudata. In the eastern United States, five native species are frequently in cultivation: M. acuminata (as a shade tree), M. grandiflora, M. virginiana, M. tripetala, and M. macrophylla. The last two species must be planted where high winds are not a frequent problem because of the large size of their leaves. Young plants of the Florida endemic Magnolia ashei start flowering at a particularly early age, even just 3–4 years old, making it popular.
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