Magnolia, the state flower of Louisiana

How to recognize it

The southern magnolia is an evergreen tree with a cone-shaped crown, usually 50 to 90 feet tall. Its leaves are thick and leathery, five to eight inches long, glossy dark green on top and rusty brown and fuzzy underneath.

The flowers are the showpiece. They are large and creamy white, six to eight inches across, with six to fifteen thick petals, and they have a strong, sweet, lemony fragrance. They bloom from late spring into summer, with scattered flowers into fall. Afterward the tree produces a hairy, cone-like fruit, three to five inches long, that splits open to reveal bright red seeds hanging on thin threads.

A native of the South

The southern magnolia is native to the Southeast, from Maryland south to Florida and west to Texas, including Louisiana, where it grows in moist woods and bottomland forests mixed with other hardwoods. It is also planted widely as a shade and ornamental tree across the South, and it stands up well to hurricane winds.

Where to see it

Southern magnolias line streets, fill yards and shade old plantation and courthouse grounds across Louisiana. In the wild, look in moist bottomland and upland hardwood forests. Late spring and early summer, when the trees are covered in white blossoms, is the best time.

Chosen in 1900

The legislature made the magnolia blossom the state flower in 1900, choosing it because magnolia trees are so common in Louisiana. The law, now R.S. 49:154, says simply “the magnolia,” without naming a species.

The Louisiana iris

In 1990 Louisiana added a state wildflower: the Louisiana iris, specifically Iris giganticaerulea, the giant blue iris of the coastal marshes. Louisiana irises are a group of native irises that grow in the state’s wet places and bloom in shades of blue, purple, red, yellow and white in spring; Iris giganticaerulea is the tallest, with blue-violet flowers.