Yellow Magnolia

Magnolia ‘Elizabeth’

This yellow magnolia stands tall on Bellevue Avenue in between Webster St. and Narraganset Ave.  There are a couple yellow magnolias showing their color this week either on Bellevue or just off it, all visible from the street.  The new kid on the block of the magnolias these varieties haven’t been around as long, originating as hybrids in the 1970’s, as the older varieties like the star or saucer magnolias.  All of the yellows are selections or hybrids of the Appalachian native cucumber magnolia (Magnolia acuminata).  Its later flowering yellow and green tepals are not very showy and blend in with the foliage but many of these newer cultivars focus on the yellow color with a preference of full bloom before the leaves emerge.

This particular tree I believe is ‘Elizabeth’.  It is a hybrid of cucumber magnolia with Yulan magnolia (Magnolia denudata).  This hybrid from the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens was selected for the yellow pigment of the cucumber magnolia tepals incorporated with the fragrant white flowers that open before the leaves emerge of the Yulan magnolia.  The result is a tree with buttery pale-yellow colored very fragrant flowers that open well before the leaves emerge.  Lois magnolia a very similar hybrid, with Elizabeth as a parent, opens a little bit later with yellower tepals.  Although we see smaller trees currently due to their young age, they have the potential to get very large as their parent the cucumber magnolia does.