Magnolia grandiflora L.
Big-laurel, Bull-bay, Evergreen Magnolia, Kaɬàaha
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 grandiflora, commonly known as the southern magnolia or bull bay, is a flowering tree in the family Magnoliaceae native to the Southeastern United States coastal plain, from Virginia to central Florida, and west to East Texas. Reaching 27.5 m (90 ft) in height, it is a large, striking evergreen tree, with large, dark-green leaves up to 20 cm long and 12 cm wide, and large, white, fragrant flowers up to 30 cm (12 in) in diameter.
Text from Wikipedia, “Magnolia grandiflora”, 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.
At a glance
Also known as Magnolia angustifolia Millais; Magnolia elliptica (W.T.Aiton) Link; Magnolia exoniensis Millais; Magnolia ferruginea W.Watson; Magnolia ferruginea Z.Collins and 38 more.
Cultivation
Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (December to March and June to September in the northern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.
The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (938 mm of 1300 mm) takes 8 months, December to March and June to September. Mean temperature moves 17.7 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to March and June to September.
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 1300 mm a year, wettest July at 139 mm, driest April at 86 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
1300 mm a year at the habitat, 938 mm of it December to March and June to September. Wettest month July at 139 mm, driest April at 86 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1192 mm to 1594 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 40 mol/m²/day.
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 40 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 15, the highest 90th-percentile month 42).
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 -4.1 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -4.1 °C, the absolute minimum -11.5 °C, about 18 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 38.6 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 5.8 °C in January (across the envelope cells 0.8 °C to 11.0 °C), warmest day 31.6 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -4.1 °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.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 57 to 62% 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
Figures by month
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 15 / 10–20 | 16 / 12–21 | 20 / 17–24 | 24 / 21–27 | 28 / 25–30 | 31 / 29–32 | 32 / 30–33 | 31 / 29–33 | 29 / 27–31 | 25 / 22–27 | 20 / 16–24 | 16 / 11–21 |
| Night °C | 6 / 1–11 | 7 / 2–12 | 10 / 6–14 | 14 / 10–17 | 18 / 15–21 | 22 / 19–24 | 23 / 21–25 | 23 / 21–25 | 21 / 18–23 | 16 / 12–20 | 11 / 7–16 | 7 / 2–13 |
| Rain mm | 102 / 67–135 | 99 / 75–142 | 114 / 94–148 | 86 / 65–118 | 94 / 69–129 | 136 / 107–197 | 139 / 111–195 | 133 / 97–202 | 115 / 92–178 | 92 / 75–130 | 90 / 55–126 | 100 / 66–143 |
| DLI | 18 / 17–21 | 23 / 21–26 | 30 / 28–32 | 37 / 35–39 | 40 / 38–42 | 39 / 38–40 | 38 / 38–40 | 35 / 34–37 | 30 / 29–32 | 26 / 24–27 | 20 / 18–22 | 17 / 15–19 |
| RH % | 58 / 57–60 | 58 / 56–59 | 57 / 55–60 | 57 / 54–59 | 58 / 56–61 | 61 / 58–64 | 62 / 60–64 | 62 / 60–65 | 60 / 59–64 | 58 / 57–61 | 58 / 57–59 | 59 / 57–60 |
Each figure is the median across the 933 grid cells holding the 1437 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 1168:1962 (31.575, -81.875). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -11.5 °C, 1st-percentile night -4.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 38.6 °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 933 distinct grid cells holding the 1437 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1168:1962 (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 31.50_-81.875, lapse-corrected -5 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 22 m (cell mean).
Natural habitat
Photographs
Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0 (7); (c) Scott Allen Davis, some rights reserved (CC BY).
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 grandiflora, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.
Related
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.
Gelsemium sempervirens Carolina jasmine
Stokesia laevis Stokes' aster
Vitis rotundifolia Muscadine Grape
Prunus caroliniana Carolina laurel cherry
Sarracenia rubra red pitcherplant
Sarracenia flava TrumpetsOther Magnolia 12 in the reference
Magnolia acuminata Cucumber-tree
Magnolia champaca Champak, Champak tree, Joy Perfume Tree, Champaca, Yellow Champaka, Orange Chempaca, Orange Champak, Orange Champaka, Chempaca Merah, Sapu, Cempaka Kuning
Magnolia coco Magnoliaceae
Magnolia compressa Compressed michelia
Magnolia denudata Lilytree
Magnolia figo Banana Magnolia
Magnolia kobus Kobus Magnolia
Magnolia liliiflora Flowering Magnolia
Magnolia macrophylla Big-leaf Magnolia
Magnolia stellata Star Magnolia
Magnolia tripetala Umbrella Magnolia
Magnolia virginiana Beaver-wood 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 answeredgbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zamclimate answeredwikidata 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: skippedinat.taxon not askedinat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedinat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: filled 2026-09-20commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)gbif.media answeredopenalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedEvery upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 104 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.








