Plant Wiki

The open plant encyclopedia

Know any plant.
Grow it well.

Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.

  • 13,000+plants with full pages
  • 365,000+plant species worldwide
  • 220+countries covered

Common in

See all

The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.

What do you want to do?

Popular plants

Browse all plants

See them in 3D

All plants in 3D

Browse plants

Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.

Plant Wiki › Browse plants

Chinese Evergreen Magnolia

Magnolia delavayi

Chinese Evergreen Magnolia
Photo: This illustration was made by Citron You must credit this : Citron / CC-BY-SA-3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0

Magnolia delavayi is a small evergreen tree from southwest China, grown mainly for its tough evergreen foliage and large fragrant cream-to-pink flowers. It is hardy in mild climates and is most successfully grown in the ground in subtropical or mild temperate regions rather than as a houseplant.

Family
Magnoliaceae (Magnolia family)
Grows as
Tree
Light
Part shade, Full sun
Water
Water regularly while young and during dry spells; let the top few centimetres of soil dry out between waterings.
Soil
Well-drained, slightly acidic, humus-rich soil.
Temperature
Roughly 0 to 30 °C; protect young plants from hard frost and cold winds.
How easy
Moderate
Native range
China (Sichuan, Yunnan)
Climate
subtropical

About

Magnolia delavayi is a species of flowering plant in the genus Magnolia. It is known by the common names of Chinese evergreen magnolia or Delavay's magnolia. It was named after Father Delavay, French Catholic missionary in China, who collected it.

How to grow it

Magnolia delavayi is grown as an ornamental tree for its evergreen foliage as well as flowers. It is uncommon though increasing in cultivation elsewhere, such as in California. A recently selected red-flowered form is becoming popular in cultivation.

Magnolia delavayi is the city tree of Chongqing.

Where it grows

Magnolia delavayi is native to southern China, occurring in Guizhou, Sichuan and Yunnan at 1,500-2,800 m of elevation.

Other Magnolia plants

Ashe's Magnolia · Magnolia boliviana · Campbell's Magnolia · Magnolia cararensis · Champak · Prosperous Music Smiling Tree · Magnolia coco · Compressed Michelia · Dawson's magnolia · Cloudforest magnolia · Lilytree · Sweet Michelia

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Magnolia delavayi by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

Credits & terms

Identify a plant

Point at a leaf or flower and snap. One plant in frame works best.

Your photo
Starting camera…