Magnolia maudiae ("Miyamagansho")

Japanese name: ミヤマガンショウ （深山含笑）
Scientific name: Magnolia maudiae

[Overview]
An evergreen tree about 20 m tall.
The bark is pale gray to grayish brown.
The young branches, buds, undersides of the leaves, and bracts are covered with a white bloom.
The leaves are simple and alternate, 7–18 cm long and 3.5–8.5 cm wide, oblong or rarely ovate-oblong, leathery, dark green and somewhat glossy on the upper surface, and grayish green on the underside.
The leaf margin is entire.
The flowers are borne singly in the leaf axils, 10 cm across and white; there are 9 tepals, with the bases tinged slightly pale pink.
The flowers are fragrant.
The buds are enclosed in thin brown bracts.
The fruit is an elliptic to ovoid follicle, which splits open when ripe to reveal red seeds.

[Uses]
It is used medicinally, and the wood is also useful.

[Cultivation]
Propagate from seed, by layering, or by cuttings.
It is somewhat sensitive to cold, so protect it from frost, cold wind, and strong wind.
It prefers sun to partial shade and a well-drained, slightly moist, fertile soil.
It dislikes dryness and strong afternoon sun.
Because it grows large, it is not suited to pots and needs plenty of space.
Mature trees are difficult to transplant.
Rainfall is sufficient for watering unless summer brings a long spell of sunny weather and the soil dries out.
Apply organic fertilizer in winter and also after flowering as a thank-you fertilizer.
It dislikes pruning, so limit it to cutting unneeded branches.
Scale insects can occur.

[Notes]
The Japanese name is the on'yomi (Sino-Japanese) reading of the Chinese name 深山含笑 (shen shan han xiao).

View this page in Japanese (日本語)