Magnolia dawsoniana

Description

Dawson's magnolia (Magnolia dawsoniana) is a magnolia species native to the provinences of Sichuan and Yunnan in China, usually at altitudes of 1400 to 2500 m. It is a small, ornamental deciduous tree that can grow to heights of 20 m. Leaf shape is obovate to elliptic-obovate, 7.5–14 cm-long, and is bright green above and glaucous underneath. The white to reddish flowers are large (16–25 cm wide), fragrant, and appear before leaves. It was first discovered in western Sichuan in 1869 by Père Jean Pierre Armand and was introduced in western cultivation in 1908, when E.H. Wilson sent seeds from plants growing near Kangding, Sichuan, to Arnold Arboretum in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts. They are, however, rarely cultivated. Magnolia dawsoniana is cold hardy to USDA hardiness zone 6.