Recently my health became a little worse than normal and it has been a struggle to find the motivation to blog. I'm very grateful the Lucy from
Loose and Leafy has left me little reminders to join the Tree Following project.
As I'm quite a few month behind, I'll start with the smallest of the two trees I'm following and bring us up to speed with what's been happening with it. Then in future Tree Following posts, I'll upload photos of a second tree I've been photographing this year.
As I can't get out much, I've decided to follow a couple of trees in my garden. When we moved here around 4 and a half years ago the garden was a blank slate of grass on clay. To be honest, it hasn't changed much, but we have been gradually adding trees, shrubs, bulbs, and annuals.The tree that I'll blog about today is a
Magnolia stellata, commonly known as the star magnolia. This post will primarily be lots of photos as the star magnolia flowers early in the year before it throws out its leaves. This means that the bulk of 'interest' happens early in the year, with the majority of the rest of the year being collecting sunlight and making energy to grow and develop the flower buds before the following winter.
So, without further ado, I bring to you: Star...
March:
During the winter, there are no leaves on the tree, which gives it a rather skeletal appearance - but this is ok because the blooms more than make up for it. As you can see, to protect against the cold of winter, the star magnolia protects the flower buds with a furry coat.
As the time for flowering approaches, the bract casings protecting the flower bud gradually fall off; revealing a delicious-looking flower bud with a pinkish stripe that fades as the flower opens.
April:
Eventually the flower opens, revealing many spreading white tepals - which give the star magnolia its name. Each tepal is quite narrow, but up to 2" to 3" in length.
The photo above provides a closer look at the reproductive parts of the flower. There are many cream stamens surrounding many carpels. You may notice that the stamens are quite flat and there is no distinct anther and filament sections - this is a link that shows
Magnolias to be an ancient genus. These stamens are known as relictual features and as such have not undergone a great deal of evolutionary change.
A final couple of photos, one showing the full tree with flowers in various stages from recently opened to a stage where the petals have fallen off. The final photograph shows the depth of the whole flower - I quite like this shot.
Well thanks for reading my first Tree Following post. For more information on Tree Following please visit the
Loose and Leafy blog.
References
James D. Mauseth, 2012.
Botany: An Introduction to Plant Biology. 5 Edition. Jones & Bartlett Learning.
It really is like a papery star. I've added this tree to the info. on the Tree Following page - and look forward to next month's reveal of the other tree!
ReplyDeleteThanks Lucy. Glad you like it.
DeleteWhat a beauty… when I moved to my current garden, we cleared a huge rhododendron and there was a stellata hiding behind it - so lovely, and yours is just perfect!
ReplyDeleteReally glad you found such a lovely surprise in your garden.
DeleteA lovely tree. I like the way it flowers when it is still young. It looks good in a pot.
ReplyDeleteThanks, I didn't want it to get crowed out so thought a pot would be a good place to start it.
DeleteI especially like the photo of the leafless tree covered with stars! I find magnolia flowers intriguing with their undifferentiated tepals and stamens -- feels like looking into the past, back when flowering plants were getting going.
ReplyDeleteI think their link to the past is one of the reasons I like magnolias so much. There was a well reviewed book on magnolias released recently - I'm hoping it drops in price so I can get a copy!
DeleteThis is one of my favourite shrubs/small trees, I had to buy one for my new garden when we moved here almost 2 years ago now. Hope you are out and about again soon, I have ME, so know all too well how hard it is to find oneself housebound.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Janet. I have an assessment for ME coming up in the near future. Would be nice to get some answers as this has been going on for a few years now. Really glad to meet someone else who's a fan of stellata :)
DeleteThis is quite lovely and so different from the tulip like blossoms that I know from the Magnolia tree. Your pictures are very nice. I wish you better health soon.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Trella, glad you like the photos. I find the stellata more understated than those tulip-like blossoms - I think that's what makes it my favourite!
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