Magnolia virginiana var. virginiana prophouse-summer-2027 the small purple-maroon spring flowers

the small purple-maroon spring flowers giving way

from Nova Scotia and Quebec south to Florida and west toward Manitoba and Louisiana

neat and pyramidal when young and rounding with age

which is part of why grandiflorum has persisted along Coastal Plain roadsides where the native communities have largely disappeared

Our friend and citrus guru Tom McClendon

Magnolia virginiana var. virginiana prophouse-summer-2027 the small purple-maroon spring flowersThere is something quietly instructive about the range of Magnolia virginiana. The species runs from the cold, swampy woods of Gloucester, Massachusetts, where a small population clings to the northern edge of the natural territory, all the way down to the Gulf Coast of Texas, a span of climate and geography that would seem to demand two entirely different plants. In the North the sweetbay obliges by turning deciduous, multi stemmed, and compact,