The Magnoliaceae () are a

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

family, the magnolia family, in the order

Magnoliales The Magnoliales are an order of flowering plants. Classification The Magnoliales include six families: * Annonaceae (custard apple family, over 2000 species of trees, shrubs, and lianas; mostly tropical but some temperate) * Degeneriaceae (two ...

. It consists of two genera: ''

Magnolia ''Magnolia'' is a large genus of about 210 to 340The number of species in the genus ''Magnolia'' depends on the taxonomic view that one takes up. Recent molecular and morphological research shows that former genera ''Talauma'', ''Dugandiodendro ...

'' and ''

Liriodendron ''Liriodendron'' () is a genus of two species of characteristically large trees, deciduous over most of their populations, in the magnolia family (Magnoliaceae). These trees are widely known by the common name tulip tree or tuliptree for their ...

'' (tulip trees). Unlike most

angiosperms Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants ...

, whose

flower A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechani ...

parts are in whorls (rings), the Magnoliaceae have their stamens and

pistils Gynoecium (; ) is most commonly used as a collective term for the parts of a flower that produce ovules and ultimately develop into the fruit and seeds. The gynoecium is the innermost whorl of a flower; it consists of (one or more) '' pistils' ...

in spirals on a conical receptacle. This arrangement is found in some fossil plants and is believed to be a basal or early condition for angiosperms. The flowers also have parts not distinctly differentiated into

sepal A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 The term ''sepalum'' was coine ...

s and petals, while angiosperms that evolved later tend to have distinctly differentiated sepals and petals. The poorly differentiated

perianth The perianth (perigonium, perigon or perigone in monocots) is the non-reproductive part of the flower, and structure that forms an envelope surrounding the sexual organs, consisting of the calyx (sepals) and the corolla ( petals) or tepals when ...

parts that occupy both positions are known as

tepal A tepal is one of the outer parts of a flower (collectively the perianth). The term is used when these parts cannot easily be classified as either sepals or petals. This may be because the parts of the perianth are undifferentiated (i.e. of very ...

s. The family has about 219 species and ranges across subtropical eastern North America,

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

and

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

, the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...

, tropical

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

, southern and eastern

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, Sri Lanka,

Indochina Mainland Southeast Asia, also known as the Indochinese Peninsula or Indochina, is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the west an ...

Malesia Malesia is a biogeographical region straddling the Equator and the boundaries of the Indomalayan and Australasian realms, and also a phytogeographical floristic region in the Paleotropical Kingdom. It has been given different definitions. Th ...

, China, Japan, and

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

Genera

The number of genera in Magnoliaceae is a subject of debate. Up to 17 have been recognized, including ''Alcimandra'', ''Lirianthe'', ''Manglietia'', ''Michelia'', ''Pachylarnax'', ''Parakmeria'', ''Talauma'' and ''Yulania''. However, many recent studies have opted to merge all genera within subfamily Magnolioideae into the genus ''Magnolia''. Thus, Magnoliaceae would include only two extant genera, ''Magnolia'' and ''Liriodendron''.

Description

The

monophyly In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic gro ...

of Magnoliaceae is supported by a number of shared morphological characters among the various genera in the family. Most have bisexual flowers (with the exception of ''Kmeria'' and some species of ''Magnolia'' section ''Gynopodium''), showy, fragrant, radial, and with an elongated receptacle. Leaves are alternate, simple, and sometimes lobed. The

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphology (biology), Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of sperma ...

is a solitary, showy flower with indistinguishable petals and sepals.

Sepal A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 The term ''sepalum'' was coine ...

s range from six to many;

stamens The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filame ...

are numerous and feature short filaments which are poorly differentiated from the anthers. Carpels are usually numerous, distinct, and on an elongated receptacle or torus. The

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particu ...

is an etaerio of follicles which usually become closely appressed as they mature and open along the abaxial surface. Seeds have a fleshy coat, aril, and color that ranges from red to orange (except ''Liriodendron''). Magnoliaceae flowers are

beetle Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...

pollinated, except for ''Liriodendron'', which is bee pollinated. The carpels of'' Magnolia'' flowers are especially thick to avoid damage by beetles that land, crawl, and feast on them. The seeds of Magnolioideae are bird-dispersed, while the seeds of ''Liriodendron'' are wind-dispersed.

Biogeography

Due to its great age, the geographical distribution of the Magnoliaceae has become disjunct or fragmented as a result of major geologic events such as

ice age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gre ...

continental drift Continental drift is the hypothesis that the Earth's continents have moved over geologic time relative to each other, thus appearing to have "drifted" across the ocean bed. The idea of continental drift has been subsumed into the science of pl ...

, and

mountain formation Mountain formation refers to the geological processes that underlie the formation of mountains. These processes are associated with large-scale movements of the Earth's crust (List of tectonic plates, tectonic plates). Fold (geology), Folding, ...

. This distribution pattern has isolated some species, while keeping others in close contact. Extant species of the Magnoliaceae are widely distributed in temperate and tropical Asia from the

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 10 ...

to Japan and southwest through

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

and

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torr ...

. Asia is home to about two-thirds of the species in Magnoliaceae, with the remainder of the family spread across the Americas with temperate species extending into southern

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

and tropical elements extending into

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

and the West Indies.

Systematics

Due to the family-wide morphological similarity, no consensus has yet emerged on the number of genera in the family. The development of DNA sequencing at the end of the 20th century had a profound impact on the research of phylogenetic relationships within the family. The employment of ''ndh''F and cpDNA sequences has refuted many of the traditionally accepted phylogenetic relationships within the Magnoliaceae. For example, the genera ''Magnolia'' and ''Michelia'' were shown to be paraphyletic when the remaining four genera of the Magnolioideae are split out. In fact, even many of the subgenera (''Magnolia'' subg. ''Magnolia'', ''Magnolia'' subg. ''Talauma'') have been found to be paraphyletic. Although no completely resolved

phylogeny A phylogenetic tree (also phylogeny or evolutionary tree Felsenstein J. (2004). ''Inferring Phylogenies'' Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, MA.) is a branching diagram or a tree showing the evolutionary relationships among various biological spe ...

for the family has yet been determined, these technological advances have allowed systematists to broadly circumscribe major lineages.

Economic significance

As a whole, the Magnoliaceae are not an economically significant family. With the exception of ornamental cultivation, the economic significance of magnolias is generally confined to the use of wood from certain timber species and the use of bark and flowers from several species believed to possess medicinal qualities. The wood of the American tuliptree, '' Liriodendron tulipifera'' and the wood of the cucumbertree magnolia, ''

Magnolia acuminata ''Magnolia acuminata'', commonly called the cucumber tree (often spelled as a single word "cucumbertree"), cucumber magnolia or blue magnolia, is one of the largest magnolias, and one of the cold-hardiest. It is a large forest tree of the Easte ...

'', and, to a lesser degree, that of the Frasier magnolia, ''

Magnolia fraseri ''Magnolia fraseri'', commonly known as Fraser magnolia, mountain magnolia, earleaf cucumbertree, or mountain-oread, is a species of magnolia native to the south-eastern United States in the southern Appalachian Mountains and adjacent Atlantic an ...

'', are harvested and marketed collectively as "yellow poplar." This is a lightweight and exceptionally fine-grained wood, lending itself to precision woodworking for purposes such as pipe organ building. Magnolias have a rich cultural tradition in China, where references to their healing qualities go back thousands of years. The Chinese have long used the bark of '' Magnolia officinalis'', a magnolia native to the mountains of China with large leaves and fragrant white flowers, as a remedy for cramps, abdominal pain, nausea, diarrhea, and indigestion. Certain magnolia flowers, such as the buds of '' Magnolia liliiflora'', have been used to treat chronic respiratory and sinus infections and lung congestion. Recently, magnolia bark has become incorporated into alternative medicine in the west, where tablets made from the bark of ''M. officinalis'' have been marketed as an aid for anxiety, allergies, asthma, and weight loss. Compounds found in magnolia bark might have antibacterial and antifungal properties, but no large-scale study on the health effects of magnolia bark or flowers has yet been conducted.

References

* Hunt, D. (ed). 1998. ''Magnolias and their allies''. International Dendrology Society & Magnolia Society.