All Because it Favours Beetles over Bees

April 13, 2022 8:07 AM

For House and Garden, Ben Dark on the history and beauty of the magnolia tree: its evolution, its pollination, its abode in the front gardens of London and in Edith Wharton's New York.
posted by Hypatia (6 comments total)

I love magnolias.

As I have said many times, I want a soft drink that tastes like magnolias smell...
posted by Windopaene at 10:44 AM on April 13, 2022 [1 favorite]

I spent the middle part of the pandemic in West Vancouver, where my family lives, but where I have never lived myself. We did a lot of walking, and much of the time, we were looking at the flowers, to the point where we had favourite gardens and trees that we would try to visit every few days to see how they changed throughout the season.

The flowers in West Vancouver are spectacular. I have zillions of pictures of rhododendruns and azaleas and foxgloves and cherry trees and so many different things, but none of them compared to this one magnolia across the street from the pool. That picture doesn't even begin to do it justice because I am a shitty photographer, but every one of those brilliantly pink blooms was the size of your damned head. Or bigger, if your head isn't particularly large.

It was completely, unbelievably magnificent.
posted by jacquilynne at 10:55 AM on April 13, 2022 [2 favorites]

There are two candlelight-yellow magnolias blooming in a little cemetery near me right now, and they are gorgeous in any light.

The beetles and the magnolias were alone together for a further 30 million years before dinosaurs went extinct and the bees appeared, by which time our plant was well set in its ways.

It’s not that the species is set in its ways, it’s that the way still works.
posted by clew at 11:09 AM on April 13, 2022

I recently learned you can eat Magnolia flowers straight off the tree, and delighted in trying this out on a recent trip to Portland. Refreshing taste, whimsical fun
posted by EarnestDeer at 2:33 PM on April 13, 2022 [1 favorite]

I have one by my front door. It flowers beautifully in the spring, and occasionally puts out a few more flowers later in the year (surprise!). Last year, for the first time since I moved here in 2015, it had a fruit. Just the one! I hope that beetle told its friends.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 3:01 AM on April 14, 2022 [2 favorites]

I had no idea they were an ancient tree. Very cool!
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:28 AM on April 14, 2022