That is a big while flower blooming on a big green Magnolia Tree, one of three which perfumes up the air surrounding my swimming pool. This morning the pleasant perfume was particularly pleasant, with a steady wind having blown yesterday's extra bad smoggy pollution north across the Red River, to Oklahoma.I looked up Magnolia Tree this morning to see where they grow. I was wondering because in my feeble memory it seems when we first moved to our house in the little town of Burlington, in the little state of Washington, there was a Magnolia Tree in the backyard.
And that my mom called it a Tulip Tree, due to the fact that the blooms look like big tulips. In my feeble memory, the tree was removed when the city needed to dig up the area under it to replace a pipe of some sort.
The Wikipedia article about Magnolia Trees said the natural range of Magnolia species is a disjunct distribution (I have no idea what disjunct means) with a main center in east and southeast Asia and a secondary center in eastern North America, Central America, the West Indies, with some species in South America.
Well, no mention is made of either Texas or the Pacific Northwest growing Magnolia Trees. But, I am in Texas and looking out a window at a Magnolia Tree right now. I suspect my memory of the Magnolia Tree in the backyard in Burlington is not a false memory.
I'll ask my mom about the backyard Magnolia Tree, the next time I get gas.
There's lots of 'regular', i.e. southern type magnolia trees in the Seattle area now. They seem to have become a fad in landscaping during the mid to late 90s. I think the magnolia trees that you are talking about, tulip trees, are the Japanese magnolia. I saw my first ones in bloom down in Portland several years back at their magnificent Chinese Garden.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Sarah R, for confirming the existence of Magnolias in the Northwest, and that some are called Tulip Trees.
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