Keyed Out #126 — Magnolia grandiflora

Question 1

Its stamens are not slender stalks with {anthers} on top but flat strap-like blades with the pollen sacs sunk into their faces, dozens of them spiralling round a central column.

Accepted Answer

magnolia family

Question 2

Every shoot tip is sheathed in a single large {stipule} that is thrown off as the leaf expands, leaving a fine ring scar right round the twig at each {node}.

Accepted Answer

Magnoliaceae

Question 3

Its blades are simple and entire, tapering or rounded to a tip, never cut into lobes and never squared off or notched across the end.

Accepted Answer

Magnolia

Question 4

When the flower is spent, the green column at its heart thickens into a knobbly cone, and by autumn scarlet-coated seeds are swinging clear of it on fine elastic threads.

Accepted Answer

a cone of pods that open to let the seeds out

Question 5

The underside of every leaf is coated in a dense rusty-brown felt, so the crown flashes two colours whenever wind lifts the foliage.

Accepted Answer

Magnolia grandiflora

Question 6

It carries thick leathery foliage right through the winter and opens its flowers in early summer, well after the leaves are fully out.

Accepted Answer

Magnolia grandiflora