Entry # 5: Nomenclature

Carolina Beach, NC

Sunset, cloudless sky, 49 °F

This late afternoon I am lying on the cold grass looking up towards the top of the grand magnolia. A prone view is the best way to appreciate the immense size of the tree as the last rays of sunlight linger at the crown. A light breeze jostles the leathery leaves, causing a soft clicking sound. "Grand magnolia," I think to myself. This is my own name for the tree. I imagine that we humans have been naming plants and animals since the development of our many spoken languages. Long ago we began pairing nouns and adjectives in a folk taxonomy system that eventually became the basis for our scientific binomial nomenclature. 

The species we call Magnolia grandiflora has many common names in English: southern magnolia, evergreen magnolia, loblolly magnolia, great laurel magnolia, big laurel, and my favorite name, bull bay. But common names can be confusing. They provide a simple description that is only regionally helpful. For example, the word loblolly describes a type of pine as well as a smaller bay tree. Most true laurels reside in a different plant family than magnolias. Thanks to Carolus Linnaeus, known as the Father of Taxonomy, we developed a codified system for creating unique binomial names for the world's organisms.  

The grand magnolia at sunset.
The genus Magnolia derives its name
from the French Botanist, Pierre Magnol. 

The genus name, Magnolia, has become synonymous with southern culture. Whispering the word conjures images of languid flowers with soft white petals releasing their lemony scent into the humid night air. It rolls off the tongue like a spoonful of blackstrap molasses. You start with the soft syllable, -mag, and flow into the accented second syllable, -nol, which hangs for a moment as the lips draw forward before slurring the third and last syllables into a single -ya. Mag-NOL-ya. The word is best uttered while keeping a loose tongue and jaw for the most sonorous effect. Mag-NOL-ya. Across the south, we use the word to brand golf courses, gated communities, medical clinics, restaurants, magazines, and even a Saturday night music show on my local NPR affiliate called "The Magnolia Fatback Folk Hour." The name has become so entrenched that it seems the trees evolved with the epithet engraved upon their trunks. But the word, "magnolia," has only existed for a little more than three centuries.

In 1695, a French botanical explorer named Charles Plumier (1646-1704), sailed to the West Indies on an expedition for King Louis XIV. Plumier, a Franciscan monk and meticulous observer of natural history, had already completed two previous expeditions to the Caribbean in search of unusual specimens for the King's garden. During this third expedition, Plumier visited the island of Martinique where he found a small evergreen tree with white flowers. We can presume the natives of Martinique had already bestowed a name upon this tree, but Plumier determined that it required a proper Latinized name. Reviving the ancient Greek tradition of naming new species after mentors and patrons, Plumier chose the patronym, Magnolia, in honor of the well-respected French botanist, Pierre Magnol (1638-1715). Magnol was one of the first botanists to create the concept of plant families. 

The genus Magnolia first appeared in Plumier's Nova plantarum Americanarum genera (New Genera of American Plants) in 1703. A few decades later, Linnaeus adopted the genus in the first edition of his Systema naturae in 1735. Linnaeus included the binomial name for the southern magnolia, Magnolia grandiflora, in his tenth edition of Systema naturae.

Plumier would have continued his exploration of the world’s flora and fauna if not for his sudden death. Unfortunately, he died of pleurisy only weeks before he was to depart on an expedition to Peru. Plumier left behind more than 4,000 sketches of plants and animals including hundreds of species new to science. Today his sketches are housed in the The National Museum of Natural History in Paris. Plumier not only gave us the patronym, Magnolia, but also Lobelia and Fuchsia, named for important botanists of his time. In recognition of his contributions to botany, Linnaeus named the genus, Plumeria, in his honor. The magnolia tree that Plumier found in Martinique is now known as Magnolia dodecapetala.

Long before the genus Magnolia entered our botanical lexicon, these evergreen trees with the large white flowers were surely known by other names given by native peoples. In my mind, it isn't too far-fetched to consider that the animals depending upon magnolias for food and shelter-- the crows feasting upon the red berries, the beetles pollinating the flowers, even the dinosaurs that once shared the earth with magnolias--formulated their own "names" for these ancient trees.