Flora of North America species comparison

The disposition of Magnolia macrophylla and its close relative M. ashei has been perplexing since M. ashei was described. Some investigators have treated them as geographic varieties or subspecies, and this has some questionable merit. In the foliar state M. macrophylla is hardly, if at all, distinguishable from M. ashei, but in other morphologic details of flower and fruit, they are readily distinguished. They also differ in the floral odors, which are distinct and chemically different (L.B. Thien et al. 197). Magnolia macrophylla and M. ashei are allopatric. Magnolia macrophylla is a much larger, usually single-trunked tree of the piedmont with a wider distribution, larger leaves, more stamens, larger stipules, and both filiform and flagelliform trichomes on the leaves. The follicetum is nearly globose-ovoid, with more pistils and larger seeds. Magnolia macrophylla produces the largest leaves and flowers of any species of the genus.

In Arkansas Magnolia macrophylla was known from a single disjunct locality in Clay County, where only two trees were recorded in 1981 (R.B. Figlar 1981). A survey in 1995 failed to locate the species in the same site.

This handsome tree is occasionally cultivated. A close relative, M. dealbata Zuccarini, occurs in Mexico.

The largest known tree of Magnolia macrophylla, 32m in height with a trunk diameter of 53 cm, is recorded from Daniel Boone National Forest, Tight Hollow, Kentucky (American Forestry Association 1994).

The Cherokee tribe used Magnolia macrophylla, mainly the bark, as an analgesic, antidiarrheal, gastrointestinal aid, respiratory aid, and toothache remedy (D.E. Moerman 1986).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Magnolia fraseri, a tree of the Appalachian mountains and upper piedmont, and its close congener M. pyramidata, of the lower piedmont and coastal plain, are sometimes confused taxonomically, but they differ in a series of good characters. Some investigators have treated them as geographic varieties or subspecies of M. fraseri. Magnolia fraseri differs from M. pyramidata in being a much larger tree with wide-speading branches, different leaf shape, larger flowers, more numerous stamens, and larger follicetums. In their present geographic distribution, these taxa are allopatric. In some localities M. fraseri may be abundant, as in the area near Sugar Grove, Smythe County, Virginia, where hundreds of specimens occur. It is a desirable flowering tree, occasionally cultivated.

The largest known tree of Magnolia fraseri, 32.6m in height with a trunk diameter of 94 cm, is recorded from Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee (American Forestry Association 1994).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)