Friday Fabulous Flower - What big leaves you have.

 

As is usually the case, a coolish, wettish, spring switched over to summer dry heat over night.  So the strawberries will start to ripen (a good thing) and the last of the spring flowers will bloom, for our gardens this is a large, old-fashioned looking Rhododendron (close to a wild type) that flowers now.  A nice-sized (small tree) big-leafed Magnolia also flowers about now, Magnolia tripetala in a couple of days Magnolia megaphylla var. ashei will also flower; it's basically a shrub.  When tripetala flowers, the flowers look like big white, candles (about 6" tall) at the ends of the branches.  So this is a brand new just-opened flower bud.  

Interesting profile in the garden - bigleaf magnolia

It's a beautiful morning, brisk and sunny following a big rain event that left things well-watered and very green. TPP is supervising young backs distributing mulch around our gardens. Having moved something like 22 cubic yards himself one summer, the younger back policy for moving mulch was adopted. From his supervisory position viewing the gardens from the kitchen table, one particular plant stands out against its back ground, not because of it's floral display, and while it is in flower, it isn't gaudy (one nearly open flower is under the top leaf whorls at the upper right), but TPP's bigleaf magnolia has quite a striking profile because of it's large leaves and their arrangement whorled near the ends of branches. Some people think it looks tropical.  This particular species is M. tripetala, a surprisingly hardy tree, but it doesn't like the upper midwest's wind and a more protected sight would be preferred. Alas, our gardens don't have a grotto. Sigh.

Friday Fabulous Flower - Magnolia tripetala

It's not every day that you have a new species of Magnolia flower, in this case Magnolia tripetala, one of the big-leafed species.  The flowers are borne at the ends of the branches and sort of sit upon a whorl of partially expanded leaves.  When fully expanded the leaves can be two feet long.  The species name comes from the outer three perianth parts that reflex downwards.  The inner perianth parts are 8-9 big white upright "petals" that spread a bit more than seen in this image.  This tree is about 5 years old and some 9-10 feet tall.  The flowers are not all that showy, but the tree has a great exotic tropical look to it, but it's worst enemy may be our midwestern winds. 

This has been a terrifically busy week, and science business is taking the Phactor out of town tomorrow, so posting the FFF early is the only way.  Otherwise you would have been reading my general botany exam instead of a flower blog.