Magnolia salicifolia (Sieb. & Zucc.) Maxim.

This Japanese species belongs to a group of white flowered, deciduous shrubs and small trees within Section Yulania which includes some of the hardiest magnolias. This makes it a good choice for gardeners craving the spectacle of ‘traditional’ magnolia flowers opening on leafless stems from silvery-hairy terminal buds, in areas where many other, perhaps showier magnolias prove too tender.

The narrow, rather willow-like leaves (hence Maximowicz’s specific epithet), usually glaucous beneath, distinguish it from M. kobus (which is very similar in flower) and M. stellata (which has more numerous, narrower tepals): all these are Japanese species (Ohwi 1965). Perhaps most closely related is its less well known Chinese counterpart M. biondii, which differs in having green leaf undersides, silky-pubescent pedicels, and seeds deeply (vs. shallowly) grooved on one side. M. biondii shares the lemony- or anise-scented crushed leaves and wood of M. salicifolia.

Magnolia salicifolia came into cultivation on both sides of the Atlantic as a result of the fertile collaboration between the Arnold Arboretum, MA, and the Veitch nursery in England. James Veitch and the Arnold’s Charles Sargent collected seed on Mt Hakkoda, N Honshu in 1892 while seeking Abies mariesii which dominates forest at the summit (Bean 1981). While Veitch’s share of the seed failed to germinate, Sargent’s did, and material was promptly passed to Veitch. A Sargent collection from the same trip, made 300 km further south near Mt Ontake, might also have contributed to the Arnold’s stock (Spongberg 1981). Kew received plants independently in 1906, from a Japanese nursery, and there may have been further early introductions. All this is significant since wild M. salicifolia is quite variable in leaf shape and crown form, our garden stocks reflecting this to a degree.

Some tree forms are generally upright, becoming pyramidal, and growing up to 60 cm per year. They can be single or multi-stemmed and in southern Britain or Ireland can reach 15 m or more in sheltered spots. A fastigiate multi-stemmed form described by Millais (1927) as M. salicifolia var. fastigiata appears similar in growth, habit, and flower size to ‘Wada’s Memory’ (Gardiner 2000) and might be a hybrid.

This species is well established in Europe, if less commonly grown than M. stellata or M. kobus. Extremes of height and girth in Britain include 21 m × 145 cm (2017) at Exbury, Hampshire, and 12 m × 263 cm (2016) at Caerhays Castle, Cornwall (The Tree Register 2021). It grows at least as far east as Germany (Bonn University Botanic Garden 2021), and in coastal Scandinavia, where trees dating from the 1970s grow at Gothenburg (Gothenburg Botanical Garden 2021).

Although an uncommon tree in North American gardens (Jacobson 1996; Dirr 2009), it is represented in collections on both seaboards and in the Great Lakes area.

Introgressive hybridization from M. stellata into M. salicifolia has been described where the species coexist in Japan (Muranishi et al. 2013). In gardens it has hybridized with M. kobus to give cultivars such as ‘Kewensis’ and ‘Wada’s Memory’, and with M. denudata.