We met a big leaf magnolia, which produces the largest flowers of any deciduous tree in North America.
Its blooms, as big as my head, smelled like a warm Southern evening.
It is an ancient species, having evolved 95 million years ago, long before bees existed.
Osage oranges evolved in tandem with the giant ground sloths that roamed the earth some 80 million years ago and considered its fruit a delicacy; the sloths died out about 10,000 years ago.
It’s one of his favorite trees in the arboretum.
Persons:
Marder
Locations:
North America