Species
+

Magnolia denudata Desr.

Lilytree, Lilytree, Lily tree, Yulan magnolia, White Magnolia, Yulan magnolia

Climate known 10 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Magnolia denudata, the lilytree or Yulan magnolia, is native to central and eastern China. It has been cultivated in Chinese Buddhist temple gardens since 600 AD. Its flowers were regarded as a symbol of purity in the Tang dynasty and it was planted in the grounds of the emperor's palace. It is the official city flower of Shanghai, China, and Daejeon, South Korea.

Text from Wikipedia, “Magnolia denudata”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Magnolia

Magnolia is a large genus of about 210 to 340 flowering plant species in the subfamily Magnolioideae of the family Magnoliaceae. The natural range of Magnolia species is disjunct, with a main center in east, south and southeast Asia and a secondary center in South America, Central America, the West Indies, and some species in eastern North America.

Text from Wikipedia, “Magnolia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Magnoliaceae
Described by
Desr.
Native to
China South-Central, China Southeast
Wild records
238 in range· 91 open

At a glance

Warmest month
31°C
Jul, mean day; nights 24 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1518mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jun 239 mm (CHELSA)
Light
17–34DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a summer growing season, March to August in the northern hemisphere (March to August at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1518 mm a year, wettest June at 239 mm, driest December at 39 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 34 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -4.8 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Gwillimia yulan (Desf.) Kostel.; Lassonia heptapeta Buc'hoz; Magnolia alexandrina Steud.; Magnolia citriodora Steud.; Magnolia conspicua Salisb. and 21 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, March to August in the northern hemisphere (March to August at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (1081 mm of 1518 mm) falls in March to August, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 21.9 °C against a yearly mean of 17.2 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: September to February.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1518 mm a year, wettest June at 239 mm, driest December at 39 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1518 mm a year at the habitat, 1081 mm of it March to August. Wettest month June at 239 mm, driest December at 39 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 893 mm to 2070 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 34 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 34 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 13, the highest 90th-percentile month 37).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -4.8 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -4.8 °C, the absolute minimum -16.6 °C, about 38 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 33.1 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 1.0 °C in January (across the envelope cells -3.2 °C to 4.7 °C), warmest day 31.4 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -4.8 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 59 to 64% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 9 °C in Jan to 31 °C in Jul; mean night from 1 °C in Jan to 24 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1518 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 208 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -16.6 °C and the 99th-percentile day 33.1 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°40°frost33.1° 99th-percentile day (undated)-16.6° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 17–34RH 59–64 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 208 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C9 / 5–1311 / 8–1415 / 12–1821 / 18–2326 / 22–2728 / 24–3031 / 26–3331 / 26–3327 / 22–2922 / 18–2517 / 12–2011 / 7–15
Night °C1 / -3–53 / -1–77 / 3–1012 / 8–1517 / 14–2021 / 17–2324 / 19–2624 / 19–2520 / 15–2214 / 10–178 / 4–113 / -2–6
Rain mm63 / 9–9878 / 15–129129 / 32–217153 / 52–263198 / 91–278239 / 115–368195 / 139–288167 / 131–237109 / 82–16581 / 54–11167 / 28–9339 / 10–56
DLI17 / 14–1918 / 14–2321 / 17–2826 / 22–3330 / 26–3530 / 27–3434 / 31–3732 / 29–3427 / 22–2923 / 16–2518 / 14–2117 / 13–19
RH %61 / 56–6561 / 57–6662 / 56–6662 / 56–6662 / 57–6564 / 60–6763 / 60–6763 / 61–6762 / 60–6560 / 58–6460 / 57–6359 / 56–63

Each figure is the median across the 208 grid cells holding the 233 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1229:5887 (28.525, 114.375). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -16.6 °C, 1st-percentile night -4.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 33.1 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 208 distinct grid cells holding the 233 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1229:5887 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 28.50_114.375, lapse-corrected -76 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 300 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeChina South-Central, China Southeast
Kew's description“tree” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker26.837, 116.326 · in the densest population, 95 records (40% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 238 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 91 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 112 km away. 242 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 5 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 238 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Magnolia denudataMagnolia denudataMagnolia denudataMagnolia denudataMagnolia denudataMagnolia denudataMagnolia denudataMagnolia denudata

Photographs: (c) Marco Mussita, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Zinogre, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (4); Marco Mussita, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (2).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Magnolia denudata, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Taxonomic novelties in Magnolia-associated pleosporalean fungi in the Kunming Botanical Gardens (Yunnan, China)
Dhanushka N. Wanasinghe, Nalin N. Wijayawardene, Jianchu Xu, Ratchadawan Cheewangkoon (2020) · PLoS ONE
Efficient isolation of Magnolia protoplasts and the application to subcellular localization of MdeHSF1
Yamei Shen, Dong Meng, Kim McGrouther, Junhong Zhang (2017) · Plant Methods
Analysis of Metabolites in White Flowers of Magnolia Denudata Desr. and Violet Flowers of Magnolia Liliiflora Desr.
Chang Ha Park, Soo-Yun Park, Sook Young Lee, Jae Kwang Kim (2018) · Molecules
Antioxidant and tyrosinase inhibitory activities of methanol extracts from Magnolia denudata and Magnolia denudata var. purpurascens flowers
Young-Hong Jo, Go-Un Seo, Hyun‐Gyun Yuk, Seung‐Cheol Lee (2011) · Food Research International
The world of magnolias
(1994) · Choice Reviews Online
A novel mosquitocidal Bacillus thuringiensis strain LLP29 isolated from the phylloplane of Magnolia denudata
Lingling Zhang, Enjiong Huang, Jing Lin, Ivan Gelbič (2009) · Microbiological Research
Bicyclo[3.2.1]octane and 6-Oxabicyclo[3.2.2]nonane Type Neolignans from Magnolia denudata.
Masanori Kuroyanagi, Ken‐ichi Yoshida, Atsushi Yamamoto, Masao Miwa (2000) · Chemical and Pharmaceutical Bulletin
Antioxidant activity of the chemical constituents from the flower buds of Magnolia denudata
Youngwan Seo (2010) · Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering
Neolignans from Magnolia denudata
Toshiyuki Iida, Kazuhiko Ichino, Kazuo Ito (1980) · Phytochemistry
Toxicity and possible mechanisms of action of honokiol from Magnolia denudata seeds against four mosquito species
Zhangqian Wang, Haribalan Perumalsamy, Xue Wang, Young‐Joon Ahn (2019) · Scientific Reports

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Magnolia 12 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 93 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.