Magnolia multiflora Seeds | Many-flowered Magnolia

Knobbly cluster of red Magnolia multiflora seed follicles splitting open on a branch — Many-flowered Magnolia (*Magnolia multiflora*): Magnoliaceae, native to the forests of central China.

LATIN NAME: Magnolia multiflora

COMMON NAME: Many-flowered Magnolia

Plant Profile

Many-flowered Magnolia is a small deciduous tree of central China, growing to six or eight metres with a rounded crown and smooth grey bark. In late spring it opens white, faintly scented flowers along the branches, and by autumn these have become knobbly clusters of red seeds that split to show the shiny coat of each one.

In the wild it grows on forest edges and in open valleys, reaching for the light between taller trees. In a garden it keeps a compact, well-branched shape with little pruning, and its flowers open while most spring bulbs are still in leaf, which is why it has been collected since the plant hunts of the nineteenth century.

Science & Biotechnology

Magnolias are among the most ancient flowering plants: their flowers have no distinct petals and sepals, only tepals arranged in spirals, and they were pollinated by beetles millions of years before bees existed. Magnolia multiflora keeps this old-fashioned flower plan, and its structure appears in comparative studies of how the earliest flowering plants were built.

One point is worth making plainly: the famous medicinal bark called Hou Po comes from a different species, Magnolia officinalis, not from this tree. The two are related and share the family’s aromatic compounds, but a buyer looking for Hou Po source material should choose that species instead.

Uses & Benefits

In the garden this is a tree for a lawn or a woodland edge, where its spring flowers and autumn seed clusters can be seen from a distance. The red seeds are taken by birds late in the year, and the open crown lets enough light through for bulbs to grow beneath it.

Related magnolias have long records in East Asian medicine, and the genus as a whole is studied for its aromatic compounds. This species is grown as an ornamental, and its seed is sold for propagation only. In Japan and China, magnolias of this group are planted in temple gardens, where their spring flowering is treated as a calendar event.

Growing from Seed

Magnolia seed loses viability as it dries, so it should be sown fresh in autumn or kept cool and moist over winter in damp vermiculite. The fleshy red coat is best rubbed off before sowing, since it holds germination inhibitors and invites mould in the pot.

Sow each seed about a centimetre deep in a loose, lime-free compost and keep the pot at 15 to 20 °C, or stand it in a cold frame if you are sowing in autumn. Germination is slow and irregular, often spreading over several months, so label the pot and be patient with it.

Grow the seedlings on in light shade, pot them up each spring, and plant them out while they are still small, since magnolias dislike root disturbance once they are established.

Our Take

A compact Chinese magnolia that flowers young, holds its shape without pruning and ends each season with clusters of red seeds. Give it fresh seed, cool storage and patience.

Tree Seeds