Magnolia biondii

So I'm taking a brief break from my planned adaptation/living planet themed entries to show off a few more photos... I did make it to Longwood's Orchid Show last week, and am hoping for another visit shortly so there's a post on orchids in the works, but in the meantime I have a few photos on Google+ available here if you can't wait...

Magnolia biondii

Anyway, If I haven't mentioned it earlier, Magnolias are probably my favorite genus of tree. In fact, I credit the Bigleaf Magnolia (Magnolia macrophylla) with being the plant that got me interested in horticulture, botany, and eventually Botanic Garden Curation. I'll focus on that one later this summer when it is in bloom, but suffice to say it truly challenged my perceptions of what a tree could be, and furthered my appreciation for botanical biodiversity to the extent where I became passionate about sharing these realizations with others.

Framed by a fruiting holly for reference

As far as I know, this is the first Magnolia to bloom, and with them being a tree already known for early spring flowering that should say something. Seeing Magnolia biondii begin to push out flowers in late February or early March is quite regular, though whether or not it ends up getting away with jumping the gun in this fashion varies from year to year. More often than not, winter is not quite ready to depart yet, and another cold snap causes the tree to abandon  the process.

I'd seen the tree begin to break bud here at UDBG after a string of fifty degree days (which coincided with my first ride down DE Route 9 for the season), but when I saw the temperature was going to hit 60 last week I really began to take note. I've never really seen the flower do much more than break bud during my time living in New England, but given my move a little further down south as well as an unconditionally warm winter, I was in a pretty good position to see this flower fully open.

About the best I could do for a closeup... Tree is about 25' tall so
I couldn't zoom in on anything too close... this is cropped

It's definitely a smaller flower than you'd see on later spring magnolias such as the Star or Saucer Magnolia, and the tree as a whole is certainly less prolific in terms of flowering, though it's hard to say for sure if this is characteristic of the species or if this specimen is just struggling. Regardless, I think the flower itself is still interesting. Though not as showy, it is easily recognizable as that of a magnolia, probably closer to Magnolia cylindrica than anything else I've seen. Most noticeably, the pink coloration towards the base is deep, distinct, and prominent.

Maybe it's just that I've been watching Living Planet and am thinking in terms of adaptations, but I'm now puzzled by the early flowering time of this species. Is there in fact a pollinator which operates at these lower temperatures? Or is this an example of Magnolia biondii behaving differently in terms in cultivation versus the way it does in the wild? Unfortunately I don't have a book to reference at the moment as I left my copy of The World of Magnolias at school for a side project I'm working on, but I'll look into it tomorrow and see if I can come up with a better guess.

I'm not sure how much more these flowers will open, but with the weather forecast claiming 60 again tomorrow, I plan on having my camera with me most of the week. I've even spotted a few buds closer to eye level so this might not be the last we see of this tree this year.

Hopefully within the week I'll have the Orchid entry planned out... it's probably going to be a long one but I'm real happy with the photos so far so I'm thinking it will be a good one.