Featured Plant

Like most of the Garden's showy magnolias, the star magnolia withholds its much anticipated display until late winter when, still without leaves, the unique starburst-like flowers erupt on the stem tips for a spectacular yet ephemeral show. They are worth the wait. 

Some varieties of the star magnolia can have as many as 36 petals — appropriately called tepals — per flower or perhaps more. Ranging from white to pink, their singular flower form makes them completely distinguishable — their narrow, strap-like tepals with near parallel margins for much of their length easily set them off from other magnolia species. Instead of displaying colorful petals and smaller, green sepals backing them up, such as on the flower of a rose, the eye-catching appendages of magnolia flowers are all similarly-colored and near indistinguishable. Thus, botanists coined a new term to describe them all: tepals. 

As with the tulip, also a distinctive specimen of beauty, author Michael Pollan and The Botany of Desire may anthropomorphically posit that the magnolia has induced us — by endearing itself to us — to cultivate it, and by doing so ensure its survival. If this were possible, the star magnolia, by any metric, has succeeded. A species found today growing wild in only a small area on Honshu, the main island of Japan, the star magnolia has become known worldwide since collection and cultivation by Western botanists about 150 years ago.