![\"Bigleaf](\"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Magnolia-macrophylla.jpg\")
<\/a>Bigleaf magnolia at Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden, Gastonia, NC<\/p><\/div>\n
Bigleaf magnolia (Magnolia macrophylla<\/i>) is native to the southeastern United States as far north to Ohio (USDA hardiness zones 5-8). A mature tree attains heights of 30 to 40 feet and develops an irregular pyramidal form. In the northern areas\u00a0the tree is deciduous and semi-evergreen in the southeastern U.S.<\/p>\n
Its enormous size foliage makes it a true horticultural oddity, something different\u00a0for a\u00a0residential site. Its\u00a0unusual leaf\u00a0size relegates\u00a0planting on woodland sites where weak branches and extra large leaves are protected from ice and wind storms.<\/p>\n
It grows in full sun or part shade and prefers a well-drained, acidic sandy loam. An established tree is moderately drought tolerant. Its large leaves decompose slowly and create a litter problem. No serious insect or disease problems bother this magnolia if properly sited.<\/p>\n
A tree may take 10 or more years before first blooms form. Goblet-shaped flowers are creamy white, rose-purple at the petal base, and up to a foot across. They open in early summer, mostly high in the tree and mostly hidden within the dense foliage. Up close, flowers are pleasantly fragrant. Fruit is round to cone-shaped, rose-colored, and nearly 3 inches long; they’re unique,\u00a0persistent, and attract\u00a0numerous bird\u00a0species. When cones open,\u00a0each red coated seed is held\u00a0by a\u00a0thin silk-like thread.<\/p>\n
Leaves are alternate, simple, 12 to 36 inches long and 7 to 12 inches wide. They\u2019re bright green above and silvery gray below. Petioles are 2 to 4 inches long. Its yellow fall color rarely stands out. Leaves are intolerant of most urban pollutants.<\/p>\n
It is sometimes called large-leaved cucumber tree \u2014 a reference to cucumber magnolia (M. acuminata<\/i>), <\/i>a deciduous magnolia from the eastern US which has cucumber-shaped fruit.\u00a0 Bigleaf magnolia has round or egg-shaped fruits that bear little resemblance to cucumbers.<\/p>\n
Bigleaf magnolia may be purchased from on-line tree nurseries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bigleaf magnolia (Magnolia macrophylla) is native to the southeastern United States as far north to Ohio (USDA hardiness zones 5-8). A mature tree attains heights of 30 to 40 feet and develops an irregular pyramidal form. In the northern areas\u00a0the tree is deciduous and semi-evergreen in the southeastern U.S. Its enormous size foliage makes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[444,674,806,853,1170,627,791,843,1059,729,630,705,706,646,7,455],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6762"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6762"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10500,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6762\/revisions\/10500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}