Magnolias

People call them "tulip" trees, and they're blooming all over Seattle right now. The magnolia species is ancient and evolved before the first bees appeared. Fossilized specimens may go back 95 million years. Magnolias adapted to encourage pollination by beetles, so the flowers are tough as leather to avoid damage from crawling and chewing insects.

This is interesting for a tree we associate with pretty southern lawns and fluttering ladies. The magnolia is the state flower of both Mississippi and Louisiana. Remember the title of that 1989 movie? Women can be delicate as magnolias but tough as steel.

There are medicinal uses for the plant. The compounds in magnolia bark are used in China and Japan to reduce anxiety and help circulation. Modern dental researchers are interested in magnolia because the bark extract inhibits the bacteria responsible for cavities and periodontal disease.

We don't have a big tulip tree in the yard, but we do have a little magnolia shrub called magnolia stellata that I planted years ago. It's a slow-growing thing but interesting because the delicate white flowers appear long before the green leaves. If I look up now from typing, I can see it outside the window next to our rusty and weird garden ornament. It's currently being lashed by wind and rain from the latest storm. Yes, I'm getting to be a bore complaining about our bad weather, but last night it was cold enough again for lowland snow. My brother in Enumclaw sent me a picture to prove it.