The World Flora Online

Trees or shrubs , deciduous or evergreen, aromatic. Pith homogeneous or diaphragmed. Leaves alternate, simple, petiolate; stipules early or tardily deciduous, at first surrounding stem, adnate on adaxial side of petiole (free in Magnolia grandiflora ), often ochreate, leaving persistent annular scar around node. Leaf blade pinnately veined, unlobed (or evenly 2-10-lobed in Liriodendron ), margins entire. Inflorescences terminal, solitary flowers (often paired in Magnolia ashei ), pedunculate; spathaceous bracts 2 (Magnolia ) or 1 (Liriodendron ). Flowers: perianth hypogynous, segments imbricate; tepals deciduous, 6-18, in 3 or more whorls of 3, ± similar or outer tepals sepaloid, inner tepals petaloid; stamens numerous, hypogynous, free, spirally arranged; filaments very short to 1/2 length of anthers; anthers introrse, latrorse, or extrorse, longitudinally dehiscent; connective with distal appendage; pistils numerous, superior, spirally arranged on elongate receptacle (torus), stalked or sessile, free or ±concrescent, 1-locular; placentation marginal, placenta 1; ovules 1-2; style 1, short and recurved (Magnolia ) or large and winglike (Liriodendron ); stigma 1, terminal or terminal decurrent (Magnolia ) or recurved (Liriodendron ). Fruits conelike syncarps consisting of aggregates of coalescent, woody follicles (follicetums, as in Magnolia ) or apocarps consisting of aggregates of indehiscent samaras (samaracetums, as in Liriodendron ). Seeds 1-2 per pistil, arillate, endosperm oily (Magnolia ), or without aril, adherent to dry endocarp ( Liriodendron ).

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Trees or shrubs, evergreen or deciduous, usually with perfect flowers, rarely dioecious, monoecious, or andro-dioecious, usually with trichomes or rarely glabrous. Vegetative buds enclosed by hooded stipules. Stipules 2, connate and adnate to or free from petiole, splitting and caducous but with a remaining annular scar on twig or if adnate to petiole with scar on petiole. Leaves simple, spirally arranged, rarely distichous, sometimes fascicled on twig apex and becoming pseudoverticillate, petiolate; leaf blade pinnately veined, margin entire or rarely lobed. Flowers terminal or terminal on axillary brachyblasts, solitary, large, insect pollinated. Spathaceous bracts 1 to several, basal to tepals. Tepals 6-9(-45), in 2 to many whorls, 3(-6) per whorl, usually fleshy, sometimes outer ones (perules) nearly leathery or reduced and sepal-like. Carpels and stamens many, distinct, spirally arranged on an elongated torus. Androecium usually at basal part of torus; filaments thick and short, sometimes elongated; connective usually exserted and forming a long or short tip; anthers linear, with 2 thecae, introrsely, laterally, or rarely extrorsely longitudinally dehiscing. Gynoecium at apical part of torus, sessile or with a gynophore; carpels folded, usually distinct, sometimes connate at base or rarely completely connate; ovules 2-14 per carpel, in 2 series on ventral sutures. Fruit apocarpous or sometimes syncarpous; mature carpels usually dehiscing along dorsal and/or ventral sutures, rarely connate and irregularly dehiscing or (in Liriodendron) indehiscent, samaroid, and adnate to seed endotesta. Seeds 1-12 per fruiting carpel, pendulous on a filiform elastic funiculus, exserted from mature carpels; testa fleshy, red; endotesta bony; embryo minute; endosperm copious, oily.

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Fls perfect, regular, hypogynous; cal and cor scarcely differentiated, the perianth generally composed of 3 or more whorls, each of 3 free members, the outer whorl arbitrarily considered to be the cal; stamens numerous, distinct, spirally arranged; pollen monosulcate; pistils ± numerous, spirally arranged, inserted on an expanded or elongate receptacle, usually free and distinct at anthesis, but sometimes more or less concrescent in fr; ovules mostly 2; seeds with tiny, dicotyledonous embryo and copious endosperm; woody pls with alternate, stipulate, simple, entire or lobed lvs and usually large, solitary, terminal fls. 13/225.

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SELECTED REFERENCES

Canright, J. E. 1960. The comparative morphology and relationships of the Magnoliaceae. III. Carpels. Amer. J. Bot. 47(2): 145-155. Demuth, P. and F. S. Santamour Jr. 1978. Carotenoid flower pigments in Liriodendron and Magnolia. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 105(1): 65-66. Hardin, J. W. and K. A. Jones. 1989. Atlas of foliar surface features in woody plants, X. Magnoliaceae of the United States. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 116(2): 164-173. Nooteboom, J. P. 1985. Notes on Magnoliaceae. Blumea 31: 65-121. Praglowski, J. 1974. Magnoliaceae Juss. Taxonomy by J. E. Dandy. World Pollen Spore Fl. 3: 1-48. Sargent, C. S. 1890-1902. The Silva of North America.... 14 vols. Boston and New York. Vol. 1, pp. 1-20. Spongberg, S. A. 1976. Magnoliaceae hardy in temperate North America. J. Arnold Arbor. 57: 250-312. Wood, C. E. Jr. 1958. The genera of the woody Ranales in the southeastern United States. J. Arnold Arbor. 39: 296-346.

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