Sweetbay Magnolia

Description

Botanical Name: Magnolia virginiana

Common Name: Sweetbay Magnolia, Swamp Magnolia, Swamp Bay, Southern Sweetbay, Sweet Magnolia, Small Magnolia, Laurel Magnolia, White Bay, White Laurel, Swamp Laurel, Beaver Tree

Beautiful, multi-stem, evergreen native tree that lives naturally around swamps and moist, fertile forests in Florida. It adapts to normal gardening conditions, but I would not plant it in a very dry spot. It is just fine and dandy in that moist spot or rain garden. Fragrant, creamy white flowers 2-3″ across open up in April through July, and are followed by dark red fruit with bright red seeds. Likes sun, part sun, or part shade. Has a more airy and open form that the Grandiflora Magnolia, with deep blue-green to green leaves that are smaller and thinner with a beautiful silvery underside. Slow growing to 20′ tall x 20′ wide with very old specimens reaching 80′ tall x 60′ wide. Has spicy smelling foliage and twigs. Has edible leaves and flower buds. Is hurricane wind resistant. Grows best in acidic soils.

Seeds are eaten by woodpeckers, kingbirds, red-eyed vireos, mockingbirds, robins, thrushes, crows, cardinals, squirrels, mice, and other critters. Fruits eaten by gray squirrels, mice, turkey and quail as well as a variety of smaller birds  including vireos, towhees,  blue jays, woodpeckers, kingbirds,  mockingbirds, robins, thrushes, crows, cardinals, squirrels, mice, and other critters. It is deer resistant.

Is a host plants by these caterpillars: Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly, Spicebush Swallowtail Butterfly, and the Sweet Bay Silk Moth. Sole host plant for the Southern Tiger Swallowtail.

“Beetles are the primary pollinators. The flowers have a hardened carpel to avoid damage by their gnawing mandibles as the feed. The beetles are after the protein-rich pollen. Because the beetles are interested in pollen and pollen alone, the flowers mature in a way that ensures cross pollination. The male parts mature first and offer said pollen. The female parts of the flower are second to mature. They produce no reward for the beetles but are instead believed to mimic the male parts, ensuring that the beetles will spend some time exploring and thus effectively pollinating the flowers.” (In Defense of Plants blog).

Do any pruning right after flowering because dormant magnolias don’t heal well from pruning cuts.

Tolerant of inundation with brackish water. Low/no tolerance of salty wind or direct salt spray.

This plant in 3-gallon containers is 1.5 – 3 ‘ tall.

This plant in 7-gallon containers is 3-6’ tall.

Plant Lore: Beavers use the wood for food and building materials. So, of course, the colonists used the fleshy roots of the Sweetbay Magnolia to catch beavers in traps. I know you were wondering where the common name “Beaver Tree” came from. Now ya know.

Florida Hardiness Zones 8 – 10