Like the contrasting dark anthers. Magnolia fordiana flowered with pink flowers and complementary bluish leaves at the Seattle arboretum some years ago.
An evergreen magnolia with conspicuously solid dark anthers is a noteworthy addition. Otherwise this effect would be gotten primarily from the deciduous Sec. Oyama magnolias.
This species measured 24' tall in Heronswood garden, Kingston, WA October 2009 using laser rangefinder.
Ron Attached (if I do it correctly) shows an example of 'bleeding'. I noticed in the picture a couple of years ago, some minor bleeding. Also of note, approximately 6 of approx. 8 blossoms (all but 2), not only showed 'bleeding; but the petals were heavily distorted which indicated to me that the blooms were affected by the out-of-season changes in our last winter-spring-summer. Don King Issaquah, WA
Also, I believe that yuyuanensis was elevated to species status in 2004. See classification in magnoliasociety.org. BTW, because of health and age, I resigned as web master last spring. It is not my fault that the home page is not up-to-date. Don King Issaquah, WA
The Heronswood example has quite a bit of twig dieback and has been overtaken by a climber (vine) which is sending out reaching stems from the top of the magnolia. I am not sure if there is anything else near enough for these to grab onto - meanwhile the climber will likely continue to bulk up on the magnolia and interfere with it. Some of the multiple other rare magnolias there have dieback evident, perhaps in some cases due to low temperatures, in others maybe a problem at the root such as a pathogenic fungus. Many of the native conifers forming the roof to the woodland garden housing the magnolias also have apparent decline issues. This privately held property houses a globally significant botanical garden quality collection of plants. I believe it is still for sale.
How about salvaging these plants? Most prefer more sun and should be removed. Definitely should not be covered with vines. Do you know these people? Would a park in Edmonds near the water take them? Don
Interesting to note that I am changing the name on this accession to Magnolia fordiana var. fordiana based on Flora of China's publication: http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=242331537 Although we disagree with their placement in Manglietia.
In their discussion of the family they acknowledge that Nooteboom has a problem with Magnoliaceae being split up into multiple genera, even describe the basis for this view. Indeed, how many subsequent authors do they expect to adopt Yulania campbellii and so on, down the list? http://efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=10530
I am curious. Did my original statement pertaining to Magnolia fordiana var. yuyuanensis cause UBC to review their magnolia classification documentation and then decide to use the Chinese version, because my comment pertaining to M. yuyuanensis follows the western version of the classification. Unless I am not understanding something, why are you changing to follow "Flora of China" if you/we disagree with it - or is this an internal UBC matter. My apologies if I am misunderstanding something or making matters worse.
Heronswood is owned and operated by the Burpee company. The property has been for sale in the past and probably still is. Some plants have been dug and moved to facilities elsewhere, but enough of the original garden remains to make it special. Multiple rare trees have reached significant size.
I thought maybe it had been sold and you possibly knew the new owners. Well, so much for that. The original garden was special, but I think that the real reason people drove so far and took the ferry was to get plants at the nursery - not to view the garden. Viewing the garden was merely icing on the cake - in my opinion.
No, I was processing an inventory of the garden's Magnoliaceae accessions and came across this thread as part of that process. In questions of taxonomy and nomenclature we tend to follow the recognized authorities in the region that the plants are native to. The FOC scholars listed Magnolia yuyuanensis ( Y.W.Law ) V.S.Kumar (Kew Bull. 61(2): 185. 2006) as a synonym in their 2008 assessment of Manglietia fordiana var. fordiana. The epithet yuyuanensis does not appear in the FOC assessment of Magnoliaceae. The 2008 assessment of the Magnoliaceae has two separate lists, one for the splitters of Magnolioideae and one for the lumpers. Our purpose is to try to label plants with names that are as accurate as possible and will lead people to the correctly identified taxa. Sometimes this becomes a judgment call. Future publications will cause us to change our labels again, I am sure.
