Michelia figo || Banana Shrub or Port Wine Magnolia || 含笑花 (Ham Siu fa) or Smiling Flower

A month or so ago, as I was working in my parent's backyard on Fidalgo Island, I noticed a shrub-like tree covered with greenish gray furry pods. I took a series of photographs. I returned a couple of weeks later and found some just beginning to open, pushing purple lips up from the interior of the pods, and others, having shed their furry coats, wrapped in tightly wound purple and pink gowns of fleshlike petal. Of course, I took more photographs.

I return to Fidalgo Island soon and will check on their progress.

The man who owned the house previous to my parents planted a lot of unique trees and shrubs around the yard. My initial searches to identify the plant focuses on local and native databases and came to naught. Then, a few days ago, driving down an alley with Roger in his pick-up, he pointed out the same plant and told me, offhandedly, that it was a variety of magnolia. I replied that I had been lazily trying to identify the tree online and had not come up with anything.

So this morning, I made a more thorough search and found a substantial amount of information, which is noted below.

Of particular interest to me is that the plant is native to China and is called the Smiling Flower.

From Wikipedia: Magnolia:

Magnolia is an ancient genus. Having evolved before bees appeared, the flowers developed to encourage pollination by beetles. As a result, the carpels of Magnolia flowers are tough, to avoid damage by eating and crawling beetles. Fossilised specimens of M. acuminata have been found dating to 20 million years ago, and of plants identifiably belonging to the Magnoliaceae dating to 95 million years ago. Another primitive aspect of Magnolias is their lack of distinct sepals or petals.

By the end of the 18th century, botanists and plant hunters exploring Asia began to name and describe the Magnolia species from China and Japan. The first Asiatic species to be described by western botanists were Magnolia denudata and Magnolia liliiflora, and Magnolia coco and Magnolia figo.

From Wikipedia: Michelia figo:

The Banana Shrub or Port Wine Magnolia (Michelia figo) is an evergreen tree growing to 3-4 m tall. It is native to China.

Initially described as by Portuguese missionary and naturalist João de Loureiro as Liriodendron figo, it was reclassified as Michelia figo by German botanist Curt Polycarp Joachim Sprengel. In 2006, a cladistic analysis of the genus Michelia found them to lie within the genus Magnolia.

It is cultivated as an ornamental plant in gardens for its fragrant flowers. The leaves are leathery, dark glossy-green, to 10 cm long. The flowers are cream-white, purple rounded or light-purple; strongly scented. This plant is used in Shanghai, China, as a tall evergreen hedge. It grows to a large evergreen compact tree. It grows in acid and alkaline soil very well. Susceptible to black soot.

 

From Yang Mekar ditamanku: Pisang-pisang - Michelia figo (Lour.) Spreng.

Michelia figo (Lour.) Spreng. or also called Michelia fuscata (Andrews) Walls. is amongst the fragarant flowering plants I have in my garden. Everytime I water my plants in the vicinity of this plant I could pick up the fragrance of the flowers that are in buds. I have never seen them bloom except on very rare ocassion. SO this time around I was just mumbling to myself asking the plat why I only see the buds but never see the flower bloom. Viola!! The next morning seems like magic I get to see several of the buds blooming in great spendour releasing the fragrance contianed there in. It was really wonderful and today I have a few in full view. I remember the fragrance since my younger days. My mother had it growing in our family home and knowing I was a enthusiatice gardener she one day showed me this plant with flowers imparting the fragrance of banana. She aptly called it bunga pisang or banana flower. Sometimes she calls it pisang-pisang.

The fragrance is due to isobutyl acetate depicted below. This compound is a solvent used in pharmaceutical industries

This plant is native of Southern China and is distributed throughout East Asia. In China it is called 含笑花 (Ham Siu fa) or Smiling flower. It is the favorite of women in Hong Kong in the past where they place one or two flowers in their hair to impart the fragrance as they walk pass people. Today such natural fragrance has been replaced by artificial perfumeries.

It is basically planted as ornamentals for the fragrance it imparts. However, it have found some used in medicine where it is known to have a vasodilatory effects and has been advocated in the treatment of hypertension. It is also cardiotonic and thus used to strengthen the heart. The leaves are also used to make fragrant tea. In Indonesia it is used as a hair tonic to treat alopecia. The flower on the other hand is used to treat vertigo when 5 - 10 flowers is steep in hot water and the resulting tea is drank to relieve the vertigo.

From Repositorio de noções de botanica applicada e productos vegetaes mais by João Maria Antonio da Silva

MICHELIA FIGO, (Lour.).

"Leaves incurved, reflexed; flowers axillarv; calyx spathe-like; corolla of 6 petals. Shrub 4 feet, stem erect multi-branched. Leaves lanceolate, quite entire, incurved, reflexed, shining, alternate. Flowers axillary, pale, on the inside sprinkled with red markings, fragrant. Calyx-spathe single, obtuse, tomentose. Corolla petals 6, ovate-oblong, erect-concave. About 40 short filaments, inserted on the receptacle. Ovaries more than 40 imbricate attached at the apex of in elongated receptacle, equal to the corolla, at the base are the stamens. interrupted in the middle. Stigmata sessile. Seeds as many as the ovaries. At Macao called Fula figo. Habitat, cultivated at Macao and at Canton, China." Translated from the Latin description of Liriodendron figo of J. de Loureiro (8) p. 347.

This shrub which grows to 20 feet is much cultivated in S. E. China and is very popular with the Chinese on account of the fragrance of the flowers. This has been likened by some to the smell of pear-drops by others to that of ripe bananas. The young buds and twigs arc covered with a brown tomentum, the flowers are borne in the axils of leaves along the previous year's growth. Each flower is about 3/4 inch long, the petals are creamy yellow or brownish yellow edged with rose or violet. Women in Asia are fond of placing one or two flowers in their hair and flowers, sold for this purpose, may be purchased in the Hong Kong streets in late March and
April for a very modest sum.

From Flickr:

It grows to a large evergreen compact tree or shrub up to 4.5m in height and as wide, Magnolia figo , known as Michelia figo - the most commonly grown michelia in Australian gardens.

You can see the tiny cream, purple inside flowers what really resemble magnolia flowers, but much smaller, inconspicuous. They emit a heady, fruity scent rather like bananas or vintage port, and the fragrance is stronger at night.
The flowers are very rare open (inset)

Native to China. 

 From Desertscope: Michelia Figo

As far as I know, there are two verities of michelia figo, the regular michelia figo which has a banana scent and the ‘Port Wine’ which has a hint of spice scent. They looked almost identical with the exception that “Port Wine” has a purple ring around the edge of the petals. Both smell delicious. My parents bought a banana shrub over from the East Coast. It is already four feet tall and spans like a small tree. It is not really cold tolerant so my parents have been growing it in pot for years, moving indoor during cold winter days and outdoor during sunny days. When they moved here, they bought it with them. Once it became settled here, it started to form small brown hairy buds and soon yellow fragrant flowers opened one after another. Even with just one flower, the scent can perfume the air within the vicinity. I often find myself wondering at my parent’s back porch and fill my lungs with the sweet scent of the m. figo. For some reason, the fragrance reminds me of freshly cut cantaloupes, rather than of bananas. Even the contractors that my parents hired to do some construction often stop their work and came have a sniff of these creamy yellow flowers.

I have been trying very hard to obtain an m. figo myself. From an online store, I bought a michelia figo ‘Port Wine’. It came in one gallon size and looks pretty healthy. Just a few days after adjusting to the southwestern sun, I started to see new leaves emerging. However, it was not the same as the one my parents have. While shopping around for many online stores, to my amazement, one day while I was at Lowe’s in El Paso, I came across a group of banana shrubs for sale. They were each of a gallon size and I couldn’t believe how cheap they come (it was about seven dollars a plant). For that, I grabbed a few of them and went home. Now they are happily sitting on my porch. There are small fuzzy buds on some branches. I can’t wait to see them flowering.

Updated Photos from Late March: