We have some really strange looking buds on our magnolia... It almost look like someone took a paring knife to the base. I assume this is what they're supposed to look like. Any ideas what could be going on here? Are they some kind of seeds? Disease? Trauma? We did lose a limb off this branch earlier this year after a wind storm...don't know if that could have anything to do with it. More pictures of the tree are in this thread http://www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/forums/showthread.php?t=74162
Re: Deformed buds on MagnoliaÉ Lainy, you have two things there. The last photo, and the left and right of the first photo, show next year's buds. I'm not sure what I'm seeing in the middle of the first photo. The other photos show this year's fruits. I'd say that the second photo looks the most normal, but all the magnolias that have fruits like that have a wide variety of fruit shapes on the same tree. The fruits should turn red, and then the growing orange seeds should emerge. Not all the seeds seem to develop at the same rate, or even at all, which I'd guess is what causes the fruits to have such bizarre shapes. [Edited]I made up that last bit. Maybe there is some bug that causes such shapes, but every tree I've seen has it, so it seems normal to me. So your tree has done well!
