Magnolia laevifolia Seeds | Michelia Yunnanensis
LATIN NAME: Magnolia laevifolia
COMMON NAME: Yunnan Michelia, Smooth-Leaved Michelia
Plant Profile
The plant is an evergreen shrub or small tree, usually two to five metres in a garden and larger in the wild, with a rounded, dense crown of leathery leaves that are glossy above and dull beneath. It is slower than the deciduous magnolias and less brittle, which is one reason it is used as a framework plant for hedges and large containers rather than as a specimen for a lawn.
The buds and young shoots are covered in fine rust-brown silky hairs, and flowers open from them as a cup that never spreads flat — cream to pale yellow, half closed, held among the leaves. Because the flowers come on growth made the previous season, pruning in late winter removes the coming display; the cut is made after flowering instead.
The fragrance is dominated by methyl benzoate, supported by 2-phenylethanol, linalool and benzyl acetate. Like many night-scented flowers, release peaks in still, warm air, when the volatile accumulates around the shrub instead of being carried away, which is why it is worth siting near a path or doorway rather than at the end of a long garden.
Leaf oils in the genus are dominated by sesquiterpenes and monoterpenes, with beta-caryophyllene and linalool among the recurring components. The aromatic foliage is also one reason deer and rabbits leave the shrub alone.
Established plants in the ground need water only in a dry spell, but container plants must never dry out completely or the leaf margins brown permanently. In cold districts, move the pot under cover and accept some leaf scorch after a hard winter rather than cutting it out at once.
Science & Biotechnology
Methyl benzoate is assembled from benzoic acid by a carboxyl methyltransferase, the enzyme usually shortened to BSMT, with S-adenosyl methionine supplying the methyl group. Tracing that step in magnolia flowers is one line of work in floral volatile research, and it explains why scent in these plants is tied to the availability of benzoic acid rather than to the terpene pathways that dominate most essential oils.
Uses & Benefits
In a garden this is a plant for structure and for the evening. Clipped lightly it makes a dense evergreen screen that keeps its leaves through winter, and the glossy foliage holds the border together in the months when nothing else is out.
Grown as a standard in a large pot, the shrub can be moved to a doorway when it flowers, and flowering shoots cut in the morning last a few days in water and scent a room.
Because the species is vigorous and roots readily, it is used as a rootstock for less hardy evergreen magnolias that are wanted in cooler gardens. Graft by side veneer or whip-and-tongue in late winter, as the rootstock sap begins to move, matching stem diameters and binding the union under humidity until the callus knits; a union on a seedling of this species grows away much faster than a cutting of the scion would.
Growing from Seed
On the Yunnan plateau the species grows on acid red soils, and it carries that preference wherever it is planted: in alkaline ground the leaves yellow between the veins as iron becomes unavailable. The cure is cultural — an acid, humus-rich medium, rainwater rather than hard tap water, and a mulch of pine bark or leaf mould.
Use a mix of two parts acid leaf mould or composted pine bark, one part coarse grit and one part peat-free ericaceous compost, and plant with the root collar just at the surface.
Scale insects settle on the undersides of the leaves and on young stems, and two-spotted spider mite builds up in hot, dry conditions under cover. Yellowing between green veins is usually the medium rather than a pest: check the pH before reaching for a bottle. Root rot follows waterlogged soil and is hard to correct.
Our Take
For a smaller relative with the same family fragrance, grow the compact banana shrub in a pot and bring it indoors in winter; Chapa michelia is the larger evergreen for a mild garden. If you want flowers on a bare tree in spring rather than among the leaves, Yulan magnolia is the other side of the family.
Related Reading
More species in the same orbit as Yunnan Michelia: