| Scientific name | Magnolia grandiflora |
|---|---|
| Common name | Southern magnolia; bull bay; large tree magnolia |
Top photo by J. Mickey at Carvers Creek State Park
About This Tree
At Carvers Creek State Park, visitors can find magnolia trees scattered throughout the park. Outside the Rockefeller House, there is a grove of magnolia trees established by the Rockefeller family. The trees are linked to Mrs. Nancy Rockefeller, the wife of James Stillman Rockefeller. The Rockefellers met when James was going to France for the 1924 Olympics, and Nancy was a passenger on the same boat. They courted for a year before marrying. James and Nancy fell in love with the Carolina Sandhills and built a vacation home here in 1938. As part of the landscaping, Nancy had magnolia trees planted outside their house, which the park continues to maintain today as a quiet area to reflect and learn about the history of the area.
The southern magnolia tree is a distinctive tree that is hard to forget once seen, especially when it is flowering. The leathery leaves are 5 to 12 inches long (as large as an adult hand or foot), and are dark green on top. The undersides of the leaves have brownish colored hairs covering the entire surface. The leaves feel thick to the touch, and after a few years, the fallen leaves will coat the ground inches deep under a tree.
The magnolia flowers in the summer, with huge white flowers that have a pale yellow center. The magnolia grove outside the Rockefeller House has been flowering for a few weeks and will continue to flower for another month or so. While many trees and flowering plants rely on flying insects such as bees for pollination, magnolia trees have developed a special relationship with sap beetles in the Nitidulidae family. When the flowers first open, sap beetles crawl inside and eat the sugary nectar, gathering pollen as they do. The beetles may even stay inside feeding when the flowers close up at night. The next day, after the flowers open again, the beetles emerge and travel to other flowers and trees and spread the pollen they collected.
In the middle picture on the second page of the newsletter, you can see a magnolia tree with a younger offshoot. The older tree trunk, on the right in the picture, has gnarled bark turning to brown, marked by insects and possible woodpecker damage. The younger tree, on the left, has smoother, grayer bark.
The fruit of the magnolia tree is hard to miss. Shaped like an oval, it has a stubby appearance and grows seeds on the outside that turn bright red as they ripen. The North Carolina state bird, the cardinal, eats magnolia seeds, as do other birds like woodpeckers, grosbeaks, tanagers, and finches. Even wild turkey, opossums, quail, and squirrels eat the ripened seeds. The unripe magnolia fruit and healthy leave are in the picture on the second page of the newsletter.
Visitor Tip
Remember: take only pictures and leave only footprints. Disturbing, picking, foraging, or removing anything goes against park rules and regulations. Enjoy the beauty and allow those after you to do the same!