Star Magnolia
Magnolia stellata · Magnoliaceae · 별목련
How to spot it
Star-shaped flowers with 12 to 18 narrow, long tepals open before the leaves, and the winter flower buds are very hairy.
Look
- Leaves
- Alternate simple leaves, narrowly long-elliptic to obovate, with smooth margins.
- Flowers
- Fragrant star-shaped flowers open before the leaves, with many narrow, long tepals.
- Fruit
- A cone-like cluster of follicles splits open to show orange seeds.
- Bark
- Smooth bark with gray mottling.
Where it grows
- In Korea
- Planted (cultivar held at Hanbat Arboretum)
- Native to
- Native to central and southern Honshu, Japan.
- Ecology
- Horticultural sources record that birds and small mammals eat the seeds and butterflies pollinate the flowers.