
{"id":10500,"date":"2010-05-13T12:34:07","date_gmt":"2010-05-13T20:34:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=10500"},"modified":"2010-08-11T12:36:02","modified_gmt":"2010-08-11T20:36:02","slug":"bigleaf-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2010\/05\/13\/bigleaf-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Bigleaf again"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Ken Moore<br \/>\n<em>Flora Columnist<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I described bigleaf Magnolia, <em>Magnolia macrophylla<\/em>, last year (Flora, 7\/16\/09). The large leaves, arranged umbrella-like at the ends of the branches, create a tropical feeling in the forest landscape. There is a mature planted specimen overhanging Bill Bracey\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hillside patio in the heart of Chapel Hill. Bill\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s inspired placement of that tree is such that you can enjoy looking up through the whorls of giant leaves or down upon them from his hillside vantage point.<\/p>\n<p>Viewing that tree this past week in full flower was another of those \u00e2\u20ac\u0153oh wow\u00e2\u20ac\u009d experiences. All in one plane was a three-day flowering sequence of about-to-open bud, a flower in early urn-shape phase and a third, wide-open flower. What a show!<\/p>\n<p>A good place to view bigleaf is in the northern section of Coker Arboretum near the grove of big cypress trees. It still has flowers opening way up high. At the N.C. Botanical Garden, you will find a nice specimen in the woodland garden behind the Totten Center. It still has buds and flowers lower down, offering a closer view. <\/p>\n<p>This native magnolia has a curious distribution across the Southeastern states, from southern Ohio and southwestern Virginia down through eastern Tennessee, the central Carolinas, western Georgia and extending to Alabama, Mississippi, northern Louisiana and finally southeastern Arkansas. You are most likely never going to see it in the wild, though occurrences continue to be documented by botanists. <\/p>\n<p>Every time I see Bill\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bigleaf magnolia, I realize I have let another year pass without planting one of my own.<\/p>\n<p>Fortunately, keen plantsmen keep propagating this magnificent tree, so it is sometimes available in nurseries and garden centers. Camellia Forest Nursery west of Carrboro still has some small ones, good sizes for successful planting this time of year. If your favorite nursery doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have bigleaf, ask them to get some.<\/p>\n<p>While admiring bigleaf, I reflect on how the magnolia is a very primitive plant family; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been moving around on this land for a long, long time.<br \/>\nThen I reflect on its close relative, the common tulip tree, Liriodendron tulipifera, also flowering now, with its small green and yellow tulip-shaped flowers so high on the tree we usually miss seeing them, unless finding fallen ones underfoot. <\/p>\n<p>And then I think of Davie Poplar, that ancient tulip-tree, under the shade of which legend describes the university\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s founding fathers making their decision to site the future university right here more than 200 years ago.<br \/>\nAnd then I am reminded of that fine exhibit \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Noble Trees, Traveled Paths: The Carolina Landscape since 1793\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in Wilson Library\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Carolina Collection Gallery through May 31. <\/p>\n<p>With most of the students on summer leave, now is a good time to find access to this exhibit. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more than pictures of old trees. Exhibit curators Linda Jacobson and Bill Burk have weaved a memorable story of the rich natural and human heritage of this place we call home. It is sad the exhibit cannot remain permanently. It deserves publication as a small guide to campus heritage. <\/p>\n<p>Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t miss seeing it! <\/p>\n<p>And don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t miss seeing bigleaf in flower, and planting one of your own.<\/p>\n<p>Email Ken Moore at flora@carrborocitizen.com.<figure id=\"attachment_10508\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10508\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2010\/05\/13\/bigleaf-again\/bigleaf-flower\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-10508\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/Bigleaf-flower.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"Bigleaf-flower\" width=\"500\" height=\"667\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10508\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/Bigleaf-flower.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/Bigleaf-flower-112x150.jpg 112w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/Bigleaf-flower-84x112.jpg 84w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/Bigleaf-flower-224x300.jpg 224w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/Bigleaf-flower-59x80.jpg 59w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10508\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bigleaf magnolia flower appears first in upright urn-shape vase form.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10509\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10509\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2010\/05\/13\/bigleaf-again\/bigleaf-flowers\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-10509\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/Bigleaf-flowers.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"Bigleaf-flowers\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10509\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/Bigleaf-flowers.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/Bigleaf-flowers-113x84.jpg 113w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/Bigleaf-flowers-150x112.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/Bigleaf-flowers-360x270.jpg 360w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/Bigleaf-flowers-106x80.jpg 106w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10509\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">PHOTO BY KEN MOORE.  Bigleaf flower has three impressive stages: (left to right) bud, upright vase-shape and wide-open horizontal.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I described bigleaf Magnolia, <em>Magnolia macrophylla<\/em>, last year (Flora, 7\/16\/09). The large leaves, arranged umbrella-like at the ends of the branches, create a tropical feeling in the forest landscape. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","category-flora"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10500"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10500\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11893,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10500\/revisions\/11893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}