Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
In praise of magnificent and ancient magnolia trees
In flower at the moment, and dotted about Harringay as street trees, is the other worldly and beautiful magnolia tree.
One of the most ancient of flowering trees at around 95 million years old, it evolved before bees, so it was mainly pollinated by beetles hence the tough petals of the goblet bloom and its star-shaped flowers.
Below is a quick photo study of a small magnolia at the bottom of Cavendish but when you see a large one of these flowering (there used to be one on Seymour as I recall) it is quite a heart-stopping moment, all the more so if you consider that this is a tree that was part of a pre-historic landscape. As Robert Macfarlane puts it "they bloom both in spring time and in deep time"
Tags for Forum Posts: magnolia, nature notes, street trees
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Mridu Thanki on
-
You made my day - so beautiful! THANKS. Around us they are all in bloom delighting us to no end. Didn't know they were that old!!!
© 2024 Created by Hugh.
Powered by
