Maryland Bigleaf Magnolia Discoveries

I saw this article in today's Baltimore Sun newspaper:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/howard/bal-md.ho.magnolia13oct13,0,2643608.story

A guy found some Bigleaf Magnolias growing in Maryland and then they discovered what is likely to be the new US champion tree for that species, Magnolia macrophylla. It was never recorded as growing there wild before. Pretty cool!

2008 edit: That link no longer works, but the title of the article was as follows:

As best as I can remember, the article went on to say that a man who grew up in the south was walking in the park near his home in Maryland, and saw a number of bigleaf magnolias growing and contacted a scientist for the state of Maryland's forest service, and determined that these trees were growing completely unknown, far out of their normal range.

After some time and further investigation, the largest known tree of the species Magnolia macrophylla was found to be growing in someone's yard in the same county.

This message was edited Dec 17, 2008 4:47 AM

Well, I went and found one. I called the Patapsco Valley state park, and they didn't know anything about them.

The leaves are huge, no doubt about it.

Nice work on finding it, seeing as the report says "The tree's owners requested ... the location be kept private"!

Resin

This one isn't the US champion candidate, although I think I know where that one is. This is one of the hundreds in the park mentioned in the article. I looked for them several times before I called the man who discovered them in the first place, he kindly pointed me in the right direction - the park is very large, it follows the Patapsco river off and on for miles.

The one I found today is maybe forty feet / twelve meters or so tall, nine inches / twenty-three cm. dbh. It really is a beautiful tree. I read that the leaves are the biggest of any dicot in the U.S., and the flowers are, too.

I looked around on the ground for seeds, but no luck. Another picture:

Claypa, you are sooooooooooooo ((((dreamy))))!

Do they look like they're native, or could they be planted / naturalised?

Resin

No one knows for sure - it's really strange that they were completely unknown there until two years ago. And then the new US champion is discovered? I don't know how old the big tree is suposed to be.
If you look at the distribution maps at USDA Plants and Flora of N. America, there aren't any near by. That end of Virginia in the FNA map where they occur is 400 miles away.


http://www.efloras.org/object_page.aspx?object_id=6424&flora_id=1

http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=MAMA2

I always wonder why Maryland doesn't have maps at the USDA site. I think it's the only state that doesn't. The trees are spread out over tens of miles in a couple counties (I think... at least Harford County)

LOL wrightie! Sorry I can't post a flower pic for ya, maybe next year

edited to say that the USDA map (the second link above) now shows Magnolia macrophylla growing in Maryland

This message was edited Dec 16, 2008 6:44 PM

Did you get to collect any seeds from them?

I sure tried, but no. I was on my hands and knees for half an hour looking. I found hundreds of little whitish berries with roots growing out of them... I kept looking up at the trees for a clue what they were. Ash, Beeches, Oaks, Elms, Tulip P- I mean Liriodendron... nope, none of those... I had a handful of these little things and I realized they were Poison Ivy berries. Oops. And duh.
I was staking out some Magnolia virginiana all summer for the seeds, and some critter beat me to those, too.
The yellow leaves on the left in this pic are Poison Ivy. This is the top of the tree:

Hello all, I have one growing in Nova Scotia. I have others started from seed.... I have patience. It will be a while before it is award winning. Robb.

claypa, Patapsco is my old stomping grounds. Can you be more specific? Assuming these are in the park..

The trees are supposed to be throughout the area. They grow in low, protected spots in general.
I've run into this problem with google maps where a park is labeled in green, and you get to a part of the park that has "private property no trespassing" signs, but as near as I can tell, the forest between the Avalon-Glen Artney area of Patapsco Valley SP and Catonsville Community College is park land. There are Magnolias in that part for sure. I'll d-mail you (or anybody) the details about an easy one to get to.
zoneimpaired, is Nova Scotia zone 4 or 5? Maybe both, I guess.

I think Toronto, Ontario is USDA zone 6. Zone 4 is Minnesota.
Mike

Toronto is zone 5b-6, Our part of Nova Scotia is the same. The ocean moderates the temperature. For anyone who is unsure about macrophyla... Magnolia tripetala is worth the effort. In Nova Scotia they rocket toward the sky. Lots of summertime moisture. For anyone who hasn't been to Nova Scotia the growth in the summertime is increadible. Rhododendrons also thrive in the maritime climate. Robb

Well, it took me a while but I found some of these trees today. How 's that for persistance? I found two large ones 40 to 50 feet tall, and each surrounded by a dozen or two dozen seedlings or suckers.

I don't see that anyone necessarily commented on this, but it is about as likely that these trees in Maryland originated from collected plants.

Maryland has been settled by Europeans since the 1600s, and early immigrants were plant collectors too. I'd say that some of the great plants found in the British colonies were distributed to large landowners who went on to grow them out. It is not a great leap to assume that with mild climate and great soils that a plant like Bigleaf Magnolia could settle in and grow where disturbance was minimal.

40-50' tall trees would likely not be more than a century old - mere babes, as it were.