The beauty of magnolia has been praised by artists, poets and musicians. It is impossible not to fall in love with her delicate waxy flowers growing on a branchy tree or bush.
Instructions
Step 1
Magnolia, native to North America, Japan and China, is a tree or tall shrub up to 5 meters in height. Among the representatives of the genus magnolia, there are both evergreen and deciduous forms.
Step 2
The bark of the magnolia is ash gray or brown in color, with a smooth, scaly or furrowed structure. Shoots can be distinguished by large leaf marks and narrow ring-shaped marks from stipules. Magnolia has large buds of a narrow conical or fusiform shape, with 1 or 2 scales. Its leaves are quite large, mainly in the form of an ellipse, they can also be obovate and whole-edged, with pinnate venation.
Step 3
Magnolia flowers are bisexual, often very large (10-25 cm in diameter), fragrant, solitary, finite. The perianth consists of a three-leafed calyx and 6, 9 or 12 petals overlapping each other and arranged in several circles. Numerous stamens and pistils are collected on an elongated, fusiform receptacle. Among the many varieties of magnolia, there are specimens with white, purple, pink and yellow flowers. Flower petals are distinguished by a fleshy, dense, waxy structure.
Step 4
This thermophilic plant is a frequent visitor to the botanical gardens of the CIS countries, withstanding frosts down to -30˚С. Magnolia blooms mainly in May, and the process can last up to 20 days. The plant is pollinated with the participation of insects, and beetles in particular. They penetrate into the still unopened bud, and the process of pollination takes place there, because after the flower opens, the stigmas of the pistils lose their ability to pollinate.
Step 5
The magnolia fruit is a reddish, cone-shaped composite leaflet, which consists of many single and two-seeded leaflets. Black seeds are wedge-shaped, ovoid or triangular in shape.
Step 6
Magnolia liliflora Desr is usual for the tourist areas of Russia and Ukraine (the Black Sea coast, Transcarpathia). It grows in the form of a shrub, reaching a height of 4 m. The crown is distinguished by large branching and large (up to 20 cm in length), dark green foliage falling for the winter. Its lily-shaped flowers are about 11 cm in diameter, white inside and purple outside. Nine-centimeter wine-red fruits ripen in November. In addition to this variety, other frost-resistant types of magnolias are common, such as Magnolia kobus DC and Magnolia stellata (Sieb. Et Zucc.) Maxim.
