I’ve been reading How Flowers Made Our World (here on Bookshop, here on Amazon) by David George Haskill, a book that really has me thinking about magnolias.
Here’s what’s super fascinating: magnolias are so old that when they evolved, bees weren’t…
…Well, how to say this the right way? There weren’t bees yet.
Which, I realize this isn’t how the world works — not everything showed up at the same time — but imaginging a time before bees (and butterflies, and hummingbirds) is not the easiest thing.
So 95 million years ago or so, dinosaurs were strolling around magnolias.
What do magnolias do to be pollinated? Enter: beetles and flies. Those were the primary insect pollinators back then, so this helps explain things like how magnolias evolved to make things easy for them. The blooms are large and bowl-shaped (and thick so as not to be trampled by beetle legs crawling), and the blossoms smell great because beetles rely more on scent than sight.
While some trees started with wind pollination, the magnolia and its beautiful flowers stays with the beetle. And so incredibly interesting, the magnolia traps beetles (in a really nice way that they actually enjoy, because it’s so comfortable) overnight to ensure the beetle has the opportunity to do its job in the time it takes for the flower to go from its female to male stage. Depending on variety, magnolias do this different ways.
BTW, other chapters in the book discuss goatsbeard, orchids, grass, seagrass, rose, tea, and pansy.
