Magnolia virginiana aka Sweetbay Magnolia

Sweetbay magnolia, Magnolia virginiana, belongs to the magnolia family. It grows wild along the Gulf and Atlantic coastal plains of the eastern United States. Its range runs from Massachusetts and New York south to Florida and west to Texas, and it also reaches Cuba. It favours swamps, stream banks and open or shaded woods. Early colonists used its fleshy roots to bait beaver traps, which explains the old name beaver tree.

In gardens it usually reaches 10 to 35 feet (3 to 11 m) tall, with a similar or narrower spread. Northern plants tend to stay small and shrubby. In the Deep South it can form a tree of 60 feet (18 m), and one source cites 100 feet (30 m). It may grow as a single-trunked tree with an open, rounded or columnar crown. It may also form a loose, suckering, multi-stemmed shrub. The bark is thin and smooth, grey to reddish-brown, and roughens with age. Young twigs are green and aromatic.

The alternate, elliptic leaves are 3 to 6 inches long. They are glossy dark green above and chalky silver-white beneath, so the tree shimmers in a breeze. The plant stays evergreen in the far south. Further north it becomes semi-evergreen or deciduous and may drop most of its leaves in cold winters. Autumn colour is dull. Creamy white, cup-shaped flowers 2 to 3 inches across open from late spring into summer. They carry a lemon scent and have 9 to 12 petals. Blooms appear sporadically until frost, though leaves hide many of them. Cone-like fruits up to 2 inches long follow and split to show bright red seeds. Birds and small mammals eat the seeds.

Give it full sun or part shade and moist, acid soil rich in organic matter. Unlike most magnolias, it copes with wet, boggy ground. It has little drought tolerance. It is hardy to about USDA zone 5 and rates H5 in the UK. Cold, windswept sites can injure it in zones 5 and 6, and late frosts may harm buds and shoot tips. Several cultivars offer better cold hardiness or more reliable winter leaves.

Gardeners use it as a lawn specimen, patio tree or tall screen in shrub borders. Its narrow crown suits tight urban spaces, and it also fits beside ponds and in rain gardens. It hosts the larvae of the spicebush and eastern tiger swallowtail butterflies. Deer browse its twigs in winter. It needs little pruning.

Serious problems are rare. Alkaline soil causes yellowing chlorosis. Scale insects may attack stems and leaves, mostly on dry, stressed trees. Weevils and capsid bugs chew the foliage. Leaf spot, sooty mould and verticillium wilt can occur. UK sources also list coral spot, phytophthora and honey fungus. People have used the leaves as a seasoning and for tea, and no hazards are recorded. The light, easily worked wood once made furniture and small wooden goods.