San Francisco Botanical Garden

Common name: Tianmu magnolia (English)

Family: Magnoliaceae (Magnolia)

Distribution: China

IUCN Red list: Vulnerable

Life form: Deciduous tree

Flower color: Rose pink, white, pink, red

Flowering Time at SFBG: January, February

Height: 12 m

Magnificent Magnolia Facts: Magnolia amoena was discovered in China in 1933. The specific epithet amoena means delightful or beautiful. This specimen (1984-0402*A) was a gift from Shanghai Botanical Garden and presented to SFBG by then-mayor Diane Feinstein in 1982. Magnolia amoena is endemic to southeast China and grows at elevations between 700-1,000 m. The current IUCN Red List status is Vulnerable as its population is decreasing. According to the IUCN Red List report the "population is highly fragmented and the collection of buds for medicinal purposes is believed to be reducing the populations’ ability to regenerate." Reintroduction projects have taken place in China in recent years to protect this species.

Growing Conditions: Sun to part shade in normal to moist soil.

Botanical Description: Trees, to 12 m tall. Bark gray or grayish white. Twigs green when young becoming purple when old, 3-4 mm in diam., glabrous; buds with grayish white appressed trichomes. Stipular scar 1/5-1/2 as long as petiole. Petiole 0.8-1.3 cm, at first with white long trichomes; leaf blade obovate to narrowly obovate-elliptic, 10-15 × 3.5-5 cm, papery, abaxially with white curved long trichomes along veins and in axils, adaxially glabrous, secondary veins 10-13 on each side of midvein, base broadly cuneate to rounded, apex acuminate to abruptly cuspidate, acumen 0.5-2 cm. Spathaceous bract just below tepals. Flowers appearing before leaves, red to pale red, ca. 6 cm in diam., fragrant. Tepals 9, oblanceolate to spoon-shaped, 5-5.6 cm. Stamens 9-10 mm; filaments purplish red, 3.5-4 mm; connective exserted and forming a 0.5-0.7 mm mucro; anthers 4.5-5 mm, dehiscing laterally. Gynoecium cylindric, ca. 2 cm × 2 mm; stigmas ca. 1 mm. Fruiting peduncle ca. 1 cm, with residual villous trichomes. Fruit cylindric, 4-10 cm, usually curved because of carpels partly undeveloped; mature carpels compressed globose, ca. 10 × 6-7 mm, tuberculate, dehiscing into 2 valves along dorsal sutures, apex obtuse. Seeds (without testa) cordate, 8-9 × 5-6 mm. (Flora of China)