San Francisco Botanical Garden

Common name: Chinese evergreen magnolia, Delavay’s magnolia (English)

Family: Magnoliaceae (Magnolia)

Synonym: Manglietia delavayi

Distribution: China

IUCN Red list: Least concern

Life form: Tree

Flower color: Green with white - red

Flowering Time at SFBG: Spring

Height: 11 m

Magnificent Magnolia Facts: Magnolia delavayi is endemic to Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou provinces in China and grows from an elevation of 1,500 to 2,800m. Its name is derived from a French missionary, Pierre Delavay, who discovered the species in 1886. Our oldest specimen is an Eric Walther introduction to the collection. Walther was SFBG’s first Garden Director who introduced 17 Magnolia species to the garden, 13 of which have become mature specimens at SFBG and can be seen to this day. This particular specimen (XY-0179*A) was received in 1948 from WB Clarke’s Nursery in San Jose. In 1998, this tree was uprooted in a storm and fell to where it currently resides. Many had feared the worst, but 25 years later here it lies.

Growing Conditions: Full sun and regular watering

Botanical Description: Trees, to 12 m tall, to 80 cm d.b.h. Bark gray to grayish black, coarse and fissured. Old twigs thick and strong, dotted with lenticels; young twigs olive green, pale yellowish brown pubescent. Stipular scar nearly reaching apex of petiole. Petiole 5-7(-10) cm, densely villous; leaf blade ovate to ovate-oblong, 10-20(-32) × 5-10(-20) cm, leathery, abaxially densely interwoven tomentose and white powdery but later only with residual trichomes on veins, adaxially covered with curved long trichomes at first but later glabrescent, midvein flat to impressed and with residual trichomes, secondary veins 11-16 on each side of midvein, reticulate veins dense and prominent on both surfaces when dry, base broadly rounded to sometimes slightly cordate, margin wavy, apex obtuse to rarely emarginate. Peduncle erect, 3-4 cm. Flowers fragrant, cupular, 15-20 cm in diam. Tepals 9 or 10; tepals of outer whorl pale green, oblong, 6-8(-10) × 2-3(-4) cm, margin revolute; tepals of inner 2 whorls milky white or red, obovate-spoon-shaped, 8-11 × 2.5-3.5 cm; tepals of inner whorl narrower. Stamens ca. 210, 1.8-2.5 cm; connective exserted and forming a sharp triangular tip; anthers divergent. Gynoecium ovoid, 3-4 cm, finely yellow villous, apex acute; carpels ca. 100. Fruit ovoid-ellipsoid, 9-15(-20) cm; mature carpels narrowly ellipsoid, finely yellow villous, completely dehiscing along dorsal suture, apical beak reflexed. (Flora of China)