PLANT OF THE MONTH

April 2020 — Lanarth Magnolia

Common Name:  Lanarth Magnolia

Latin Name:   Magnolia campbellii subsp. mollicomata ‘Lanarth’

Family:   Magnoliaceae

Type:    Deciduous Flowering Tree

Origin:   China

Location at Bloedel Reserve:   Above Rhododendron Glen on the Exit Road

Garden Uses:  Specimen Tree

Fun Fact:  This Magnolia specimen of Bloedel’s seems to surprise us every year with its stunning cyclamen purple flowers.  This species is distinguished from other magnolias by flowering sooner than most in early spring and by its velvety flower stalks.

George Forrest was the first to come across this subspecies in 1904 when he saw it growing along the western side of the Mekong Valley, Yunnan:

“I shall always remember my first sight of a group of these magnificent Magnolias in full flower! I got within a mile of them, from which distance the masses of pink blossoms showed up distinctly, but surrounded, as the trees were, by heavy snowdrifts ten to twelve feet in depth, fully a week passed before I could secure specimens, by which time the flowers were almost gone.” –G. Forrest in Treseder (1978)