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Southern magnolia, Magnolia grandiflora, is the most familiar magnolia because it is evergreen, but there are several native magnolias that are deciduous and even one that is tardily deciduous.  Southern magnolia is the floral emblem of Louisiana and Mississippi as well as being the state tree of Mississippi.  The proper culture for a low maintenance southern magnolia is to allow the lower branches to remain even if touching the ground where they may even root.  With a canopy reaching to the ground the leathery leaves fall and stay under the tree thus serving as mulch rather than being blown everywhere.

Sweetbay magnolia, M. virginiana, is tardily deciduous where at least a few of the leaves with silvery undersides can be seen most of the year.  This species is more likely to be found in wetlands and the nearest population I have seen is in a swamp on each side of Alabama highway 75 just south of Fyffe, Alabama.  This is the second most common native magnolia in the nursery trade.

The most unique native magnolia is cucumbertree, M. acuminata, because it has yellow flowers rather than white.  As a result there are now some yellow flowered hybrids.  The common name refers to the appearance of the green aggregate fruit to a gherkin, while the specific epithet refers to the leaf shape where the tip comes to a narrow point.

The other native deciduous magnolias all have acute leaf tips, but the acute leaf base of umbrella magnolia, M. tripetala, distinguishes if from all the others, which have an auriculate leaf base that is shaped like an unattached earlobe.  The leaves also are near the tip of the stem thus giving the appearance of an umbrella.  The leaves are the second biggest, and the flowers have a disagreeable odor especially if left in an enclosed space.  Umbrella magnolia can be seen from the boardwalk trail in DeSoto State Park.

The remaining four native magnolias can almost be distinguished by leaf size and/or range, although there is some disagreement about nomenclature.  Bigleaf magnolia, M. macrophylla, has the both largest simple leaves, which can exceed 2 feet in length, and the largest single flowers of any plant in North America, and it was first collected by William Bartram.  Good places to see bigleaf magnolia are the Sypsey Wilderness Area in Alabama, and some locations of the South Cumberland State Park in Tennessee.  Ashe’s magnolia, M. ashii, is considered as subspecies of bigleaf magnolia by some and its range in limited to the Florida panhandle where it is listed as endangered in that state.  Mountain magnolia, M. fraseri, is mostly found in the Southern Appalachians while pyramid magnolia, M. pyramidata, is found in the Coastal Plain.  Both of were also first collected by William Bartram although he is only credited with the discovery of the later, which has been considered to be a subspecies of the former.  It may even be possible that mountain magnolia is a subspecies of bigleaf magnolia.  During my research the range the maps show that pyramid magnolia roughly overlaps with Ashe’s magnolia in Florida, but with Frasier magnolia in lower Alabama, making it looks more like they are either differently named specimens of what is essentially just one kind of a diminutive bigleaf magnolia or the result of integration, hybridization, and/or misidentification between the populations of bigleaf magnolia to the west and pyramid magnolia to the east.

The Alabama state champion southern magnolia is also the national champion and it is 90 feet tall, has a circumference of 209 inches and an average limb spread of 92 feet.  The Alabama state champion sweetbay magnolia is 88 feet tall, has a circumference of 119 inches and an average limb spread of 36 feet. The Alabama state champion bigleaf magnolia is 85 feet tall, has a circumference of 60 inches and an average limb spread of 44 feet.  None of the other magnolias have a champion in Alabama, but I have seen Frasier magnolias, which are much larger than I expected and probably even larger than the Alabama champion bigleaf magnolia, in North Carolina while I was section hiking the Appalachian Trail at Roan Mountain .