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Plant Family Collection: Magnolias
Magnolias and related plants, grouped by botanists in the subclass Magnoliidae, are among the most primitive of flowering plants.
These plants have many primitive characteristics, most notably flowers with many parts, including numerous petals, sepals, and stamens arranged in a spiral. The flower parts are large and not joined together. What's more, the flowers are white or buff-colored, lacking the bright colors, fragrance, and nectar-secreting glands of subsequent flowers that evolved to attract later insects with highly developed senses of sight and smell. In fact, the early magnolias were pollinated quite incidentally when beetles and related insects visited the flowers to feed on them.
Brooklyn Botanic Garden has been an important center for the development of new magnolias for gardeners, including yellow-flowered forms such as 'Elizabeth' and 'Yellow Bird'. For more on the Garden's magnolia collection, see Judith D. Zuk Magnolia Plaza. For more on Brooklyn Botanic Garden's extensive collection of water-lilies, see Lily Pool Terrace.
Map of the Garden
The Plant Family Collection is indicated by the orange box. Click on the map to visit other locations in the Garden, or click here to view a larger map.
