The beauty and ecologic necessity of the sweetbay magnolia

Hello, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. My favorite magnolia, sweetbay magnolia, could be yours, too. It’s easy to fit in almost any landscape. They are usually thirty or forty feet tall, but with half that spread. In nature, they’re found in wet areas, although once established, you can grow them in regular soil. The red fruits that follow the flowers are relished by many animals, and the leaves themselves are the larval food source for the tiger swallowtail butterfly and the sweetbay moth. The undersides of the leaves are light in color and when the wind blows gives you the illusion of it’s being a little cooler. It has a lovely multi-stemmed trunk and produces almost no litter, so it would be a good tree near a patio, fragrance and beauty, and birds coming for caterpillars.