2 Graines Magnolia à grandes fleurs, Magnolia grandiflora

Magnolia with big flowers, bay laurel, Magnolia grandiflora |

The Magnolia with large flowers, or Magnolier with large flowers, or Laurier-Tulipier (Magnolia Grandiflora) is a species D 'Large size trees . Probably because of its beautiful persistent leaves, it is the best known of Magnolias. He is from United States and widely cultivated as an ornamental tree.

2 seeds - Stratification with cold 3/4 months before sowing, ideal seed temperature 18-20 ° C -  Rusticity: - 5 ° C 

It is a large tree, with Port Pyramidal, from a height of up to 30 M, up to 25 meters in culture.

Its foliage is persistent. Its leaves are whole on a smooth edge, in shape obovale elliptical, 10 to 20 cm, tough, glossy green on the upper, hairy, tomening and often red ferruginous on the lower side.

The flowering, which appears quite late on the trees arrived at maturity, around 25 years (except for some cultivars early), lasts all summer, from June to September, even November. (In the south-east of the United States, flowering is from the end of April to July.) Flowers are large, up to 25 CM in diameter, white, very fragrant and very decorative. The flowers remain on the tree for a long time if the weather conditions are mild.

The fruit, ovoid, is a Polyfollicule (also called Follicète or Follicetum) resembling a little coniferous cone. First yellowish green, he gradually blushes while his follicles open to release small hard seeds of beige color covered with a bright red integument turned to the orange that can be considered like an arille .

The number of chromosomes is 2N = 6x = 114. Magnolia is hexaploid.

Chateaubriand describes the laurel-tulip tree in his novel Atala.

Tree of temperate and tropical climates, it prefers a full sun exposure, and the proximity of running water. In France, it is rustic until Île-de-France, where it suffers from the cold weather. Further north, it grows less well and flowers little.

Prefers wet siliceous soils to PH Acid.

Contents subject to the CC-BY-SA license 3.0. Source : Article Magnolia with large flowers by Wikipedia in French (Authors)