I think the best way to describe today's silk flower stem of the day is old. Old probably does not even do it justice, as there is evidence of magnolia relatives as far back as 95 million years ago. It's hard to really understand how long ago that was, so here are some things that magnolias are older than:
- Tyrannosaurs Rex
- Ice Age
- Bees
If you're older than bees, you're old
When the Tyrannosaurus Rex showed up around 68 million years ago and started terrorizing children at amusement parks, magnolias had already been around for 30 MILLION years! And since there were no bees around to pollinate them, they had to count on beetles for pollination. Beetles are a bit bigger and rowdier than bees, so magnolia flowers are a little more sturdy than others. Magnolias grow on deciduous and evergreen trees, and come in over 100 varieties. I believe the magnolia that most people are familiar with is magnolia grandiflora, also known as the Southern Magnolia. It's the official state flower of Louisiana and Mississippi, although Mississippi had to do Louisiana one better by making it the official state tree as well (it looks like my brother and I aren't the only ones who fight over flowers). The name magnolia comes from Pierre Magnol, a French botanist. Magnol is a pretty important guy when it comes to plants and flowers. He came up with the idea of plant families, a way of identifying plants that shared certain characteristics. To honor him, Charles Plumier, another French botanist with an impressive resume, coined the genus name Magnolia in 1703. I think magnolias are my early favorite for most impressive history. Anything that has survived ice ages, dinosaurs, extinction of dinosaurs, not having bees around, and people is OK in my book. -Chris Thanks to Botanica and New Western Garden Book for lots of good information about all the different flavors of magnolias. And thanks to Wikipedia for it's repository of trivial information, like when the Tyrannosaurs Rex and honey bees came to be. Wikipedia can be found on the internet at www.wikipeida.org