Beloved for its year-round foliage and gorgeous white flowers with a lemony floral scent, you know it's summertime in South Carolina when the magnolias bloom
- The name magnolia honors a French botanist, Pierre Magnol, who admired the tree so much that he transplanted it to Europe 300 years ago.
- More than 50 cultivars have been developed and named in North America and Europe, including “Bracken’s Brown Beauty,” developed by Ray Bracken of Easley, S.C.
- Species name, grandiflora, means “big flower” in Latin.
- Flowers give way to spherical cone-like fruiting clusters, which release individual rose-red coated seeds.The seeds resemble red kernels of corn and are eaten by squirrels, opossums, rabbits and birds.
- Also called bull bay, laurel magnolia, evergreen magnolia, large-flower magnolia or big laurel.
