Half of Wild Magnolias Facing Extinction, Report Says

Kate Ravilious in York, England
for National Geographic News

April 4, 2007

They may be blooming in your garden, but magnolias are not faring so
well in the wild.

Across the globe, 131 of the 245 known species of wild magnolia trees are in danger of going extinct, according to a joint report from the nonprofits Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) and Fauna and Flora International (FFI).

Having survived millions of years of geologic and climatic upheaval, these ancient plants are now suffering from rapid deforestation around the world, according to the report.

"There is a strong chance that these species will become extinct unless action is taken now," said Sara Oldfield of BGCI.

Like the proverbial canary in a coal mine, magnolias are indicators of the health of the forests in which they live, the report authors say.

"We now have a choice," Oldfield announced at the launch of the report, called the Red List of the Magnoliaceae, in London, England, this week.

"We can use the new information to conserve these important trees and restore their forest habitats, or we can catalog their extinction.

"The second option would be a tragedy."

Ancient Family

Magnolias are known to have existed throughout the Northern Hemisphere since the Cretaceous period, 145.5 to 65.5 million years ago (related news: "Dino-Era Fossil—The First Flower?" [May 3, 2002]).

Today about two-thirds of magnolia species are found in Asia, with over 40 percent growing in southern China. The remaining species are found mainly in the Americas.

According to the new report, roughly half of China's wild magnolia species are at risk of extinction, and similarly dire conditions exist in North and South America.

"The threats to magnolia vary from country to country and species to species, but in general, deforestation is the main problem," Oldfield said.

Operations ranging from banana plantations in China to coffee plantations in Colombia to logging concessions in the Caribbean threaten magnolia habitat.

Pressure also comes from harvesting the trees for timber and exploiting them for medicinal purposes, the authors say.

The new report is based on data collected by Adrian Newton, of the U.K.'s Bournemouth University, and colleagues.

Newton's team mapped the geographical range of each magnolia species using information from herbaria and previous scientific studies.

The team then overlayed this data on a map of global forest cover obtained from satellite imagery to reveal the health of the forests that house each different magnolia species.

"If the density of trees was less than 40 percent, it was considered to be deforested" and the magnolias there at risk, Newton said.

Magnolia Connections

In some cases the researchers followed up their map data with field studies, trekking through the forest to count magnolia trees and monitor their health.

Some species, like Magnolia wolfii, which only grows in one small region of Colombia, were found to be critically endangered.

During a site visit in August 2006 scientists could find only three fully grown M. wolfii trees and two saplings remaining in a five-acre (two-hectare) remnant of forest surrounded by coffee plantations.

And "a huge range of other flowering plants growing in the same areas as the magnolias are also going to be at risk," said Martin Gardner, a plant conservationist at Scotland's Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RGBE).

What's more, many insects, animals, and birds depend on magnolias for their survival.

"The Mexican endemic species Magnolia schiedeana is pollinated by a beetle, Cyclocephala jalapensis," said Newton, of Bournemouth University.

That beetle is also found naturally only in this region "and appears to depend on the magnolia flowers for adult nutrition."

Seed-eating birds and pollinating insects will also lose a valuable food source if magnolias continue to decline.

Back to the Wild

The report authors and others suggest a number of actions to protect wild trees.

"Quite simply we need to put a stop to unsustainable tree felling," RGBE's Gardner said.

Oldfield, of Botanic Gardens Conservation International, also believes continued cultivation can help bring severely threatened species like M. wolfii back from the brink.

"We need to ensure that all species are in cultivation in botanic gardens," Oldfield said, "so that we can propagate the most vulnerable species and get them back into the wild."

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