MAGNOLIACEAE

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            1. SYSTEMATIC POSITION:
            Bentham & Hooker
            Division: Phanerogames (Seed Plants)
                 Class: Dicotyledones
                        Sub-class: Polypetalae
                                Series: Thalamiflorae
                                       Order: Ranales
                                                Family: Magnoliaceae
           
            2. MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS:
            Habit – Trees or shrubs, a few are climbers.
            Leaves – Alternate, simple, entire commonly evergreen, coriaceous, stipules covering buds.
            Inflorescence – Solitary, terminal or axillary.
            Flower – Largest and most showy of the woody families, usually bisexual, complete, actinomorphic, hypogynous, aromatic.
            Perianth – Nine to many, all alike and petaloid or the three outer ones green, arranged in whorls of three or in spirals, imbricate, deciduous.
            Androecium – Stamens indefinite, free, often spirally arranged, filament short or absent, anther lobes linear, with a prolonged connective.
            Gynoecium – Carpels many, free, superior, arranged spirally on a cone shaped elongated thalamus (gynophore), placentation marginal.
            Fruit – Aggregate of berries or follicles, attached on a long cone like receptacle.
            Seed – Large with abundant oily endosperm.
           
            3. FLORAL FORMULA: ⊕⚥Pα,Aα,Gα or Kα,Cα,Aα,Gα
           
            4. COMPARATIVE SYSTEMATIC POSITION AND AFFINITIES:
            Bentham & Hooker, Engler & Prantl, Rendle and other taxonomists put the Magnoliaceae under the Ranales. But Hutchinson and Takhtajan placed the family within the Magnoliales and considered it by Hutchinson the most primitive among the dicotyledones.
            The Magnoliaceae has a great deal of affinity with the gymnosperms. The most striking about the wood of Drimys is the presence of trachieds with bordered piths in the xylem. However, the receptacle of Magnolia flower bears numerous spirally arranged free sporophylls. This can be compared with the strobilus of Bennettitales, consisting of central axis covered with megasporophylls. This has led to the suggestion that Bennettitales may be the ancestral of the modern angiosperms initiated by the Magnoliaceae. The floral parts of the Magnoliaceae are similar in structure and arrangement to those of Ranunculaceae.

            5. ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE:
            1. The species of Magnolia like M. grandiflora, M. fuscata, etc. are cultivated for their foliage and aromatic flowers.
            2. M. accuminata, M. excelsa, etc. produce valuable timber. The timber obtained from Michelia doltsopa is of good quality and is used in making furniture, boxes, carriage bodies, musical instruments, toys and other light constructions.
            3. The bark of Drimys winteri, Illicium verum and M. officinalis is useful in medicine.
            4. The fruit of Illicium verum is a source of a kind of spice and essential oil.
            5. Michelia champaca yields ‘champaca oil’ from the flowers, camphor from the wood and scented water from the leaves.

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