SWAMP MAGNOLIA; SWEET BAY; SWAMP BAY (Magnolia glauca, Linn.). From a shrub to 75 feet. Tall, slender tree in the warmer regions, a many-stemmed shrub in the North. Bark brown, smooth. Wood soft, pale red or brown, weak. Leaves evergreen in the South, deciduous in the North, 4 to 6 inches long, blunt at apex and base, smooth, shining green above, silvery beneath, margin plain, stem short, stout. Flowers white, waxy, from globular bud, of many broad, con cave petals; when open, 2 to 3 inches across. Fragrant.
Fruit a globular cone, 1 inch in diameter, with red seeds that hang out on slender threads when the 2-lipped capsules open in late summer. Dist. : Cape Cod to the Everglades, in swampy land near the seaboard; west to Texas and Arkansas. Val uable ornamental tree or shrub for parks and grounds. Foli age and flowers cut for florists' trade.