Odd growths on magnolia (like galls)

I was at a friends the other day and she has these odd spherical growths on her magnolia tree. We have a magnolia and never get anything like these things. I stumbled across a picture someone else posted on another site that shows what these growths look like. I thought the growths might be galls from gall wasps and the person who posted the picture also seems to think the same. However, I can't find any info or mention of galls on magnolias... Anyone have a clue what this could be???

http://www.ubcbotanicalgarden.org/forums/showthread.php?p=53601

Thanks,
Cheryle

Never fear; your answer is here (and there as well). Those "growths" are simply the forming fruit. Depending on what magnolia you have, these aggregrates of follicles can get pretty big. Southern magnolias peak out at about 5" long and a couple inches thick here. On star magnolias, they are much smaller and contain fewer fruit. When ripe, the growth turns brownish and woody, splits open at each rounded chamber, and the ripe seed will be visible or drop/hang out. The fruit is usually a bright orange red, and quite attractive to birds.

You are pretty far north in Milwaukee, and your magnolia flowers may not be getting pollinated if there isn't much insect activity during your early spring bloom period (or if your flowers get frosted or frozen before pollination is possible). Hence, you might not get to see the fruit forming.

You might stop in at the Boerner Botanical Gardens (wonderful place) and check out their woody plant collection for magnolias, and see if they've got some of these great green growths.

This is the first year my Dr Merrill magnoila has formed fruit since planted back in 2000. April (actually the last two) was very mild, and I don't think we had freezing temps the entire month, which was very, very unusual. I suppose one upside of global warming is more Magnolia choices for us northern gardeners.

Thanks for the info:-) Could it be that only certain types of Magnolias form fruit in this way? My friend's magnolia with those spherical fruits is further north than me so she should be less likely than me to get those fruit if all Magnolias bear fruit in a similar fashion.
Our Magnolia is at least 20 years old and we've been living here for over 8 years without ever seeing any spherical fruit or seeds. Ours has the fuzzy cases that the buds emerge from in the spring. Plus it has those long, green things that have a bumpy texture. It seems to drop those later and they're brown by then. I guess those could be the seeds. If they are the seeds are very small compared to the red ones I am seeing online bursting forth from other magnolias.

Here's what my seed pods look like. Their just about to open.

Different Magnolias vary a lot in the shape of their fruit - some are irregular, knobbly and lumpy, others are much neater conical in shape.

Resin

vcheryle:

There you are. When those next drop off for you, cut some of them open and examine them for the seeds. Yes, the size of the seed pods (aggregate of follicles) vary quite a bit, with the southern magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora) being generally the largest and most showy around here. Deciduous magnolias like yours aren't generally planted for showy fruit.

...although! I find the fruit display on some sweetbay magnolias to be the highlight of that plant's year.

Scott

If your developing fruit(the "long, green things that have a bumpy texture") are dropping sometime during the summer and are brown then they are aborted fruit. They won't have any viable seed in them, if they did produce viable seed the carpels(the bumps) would enlarge quite a bit and the seed should be bright orange or red(in all Magnolias) and easily distinguishable. I know of no Magnolias that have seeds smaller than about pea size(talking about the bright red or orange part, not the actual cleaned seed).

Thanks a bunch for your help! My friend is very happy that her magnolia doesn't have some bizarre disease and I'm very pleased with our magnolia tree that doesn't have interesting fruiting as others do:-)