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Article: Magnolias: Grow these shapely trees for their magnificent flowers and structurel. (Plant Portrait).
- Article from:
- Country Living Gardener
- Article date:
- April 1, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Hearst Communications, reprinted with permission of Hearst. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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My children are obsessed with dinosaurs. Apatosaurus, Velociraptor, and T-rex are household vernacular. While creatures hold their fascination, I prefer prehistoric plants--cycads and tree ferns dripping in the warm, tropical air; towering temperate forests of tulip tree, sweet gum, and ginkgo.
How remarkable that many of those plants still exist today. Magnolias are among the survivors of those ancient forests, a testament to their adaptability. Magnolia fossils date hack 50 million years or more, and their flowers--the biggest to be found on any present-day non-tropical tree--are pollinated by beetles. Bees, wasps, moths, and butterflies all evolved later. The ...