Magnolia

Magnolia is used to refer to a large genus of about 210 flowering plant species in the subfamily Magnolioideae of the family Magnoliaceae. The genus is named after French botanist Pierre Magnol, from Montpellier.

Magnolia is an ancient genus. Having evolved on Earth before bees appeared, the flowers developed to encourage pollination by beetles. As a result, the carpels of Magnolia flowers are tough, to avoid damage by eating and crawling beetles. Another primitive aspect of Magnolias is their lack of distinct sepals or petals. The term tepal has been coined to refer to the intermediate element that Magnolia has instead. Magnolias are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Giant Leopard Moth.

Magnolia trees were grown on the planet Harvest in the Epsilon Indi System, both in and around the Harvest Botanical Gardens.