Magnolia is a large
genus of about 210
[notes 1] flowering plant species in the subfamily
Magnolioideae of the
family Magnoliaceae. It is named after
French botanist
Pierre Magnol.
Magnolia is an ancient genus. Appearing before
bees did, the flowers are theorized to have evolved to encourage
pollination by
beetles. To avoid damage from pollinating beetles, the
carpels of
Magnolia flowers are extremely tough.
Fossilised specimens of
M. acuminata
have been found dating to 20 million years ago, and of plants
identifiably belonging to the Magnoliaceae date to 95 million years ago.
[1] Another aspect of
Magnolia considered to represent an ancestral state is that the flower bud is enclosed in a
bract rather than in sepals; the
perianth parts are undifferentiated and called
tepals rather than distinct
sepals and
petals.
Magnolia shares the tepal characteristic with several other flowering plants near the
base of the
flowering plant lineage such as
Amborella and
Nymphaea (as well as with many more recently derived plants such as
Lilium).