Magnolia liliiflora lily magnolia

Deep purplish maroon tepals (both surfaces) of Magnolia liliiflora ‘Nigra’ in the School of Education courtyard (now removed). Sairus Patel, 4 Mar 2018

A substantial, deciduous shrub with slender, vase-shaped, purplish-pink flowers that are held very upright on deep purple branchlets. The outermost three tepals are small, vestigial in appearance, and fall early. The flower-bud scales are covered in light yellow hairs. On campus, it begins flowering on bare branches in February, later than our other deciduous magnolias, and continues to bloom as it leafs out.

A spreading specimen is at 619 Mirada Avenue. A deeper-hued one, purportedly ‘Nigra’, is on the right at 823 Pine Hill Road. Three ‘Randy’, a hybrid with M. stellata, flank the front path of 680 Salvatierra Street. A large tree on the left at 730 Alvarado Court may also be a hybrid. A sizeable lily magnolia stands at 483 Channing Avenue, Palo Alto, on the corner, partially under the canopy of a ginkgo. A smaller one is at 2341 Columbia Street.

Campus has lost recent examples, including a classic ‘Nigra’ in the north courtyard of the School of Education, removed during renovation in 2024. Both sides of its tepals showed the deep purplish maroon for which the cultivar is famous, though other clones are also sold under that name. A pink tree on Lomita Mall near Jane Stanford Way, among the viburnums, and one reported in front of Bechtel International Center are also no more.

Magnolia liliiflora, Lomita Mall (now removed). John Rawlings, 20 Feb 2005

Name derivation: Magnolia – Pierre Magnol, 1638–1715, botanist of Montpellier.