Tree Talk: Sweetbay Magnolia

For the 50th Tree Talk, we've got a sweet one from the southeast: Magnolia virginiana, Sweetbay Magnolia! This wetland specialist is a large multi-stemmed shrub in the northern half of its range and a medium-sized tree in the southern half. Sweetbay is good for wildlife and a great landscaping plant. And if you're in a pinch for bay leaves to cook soup with, some fresh sweetbay leaves will do the trick (yep, that's why it's called Sweetbay Magnolia)!

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Forests for the Bay has been funded by the US Forest Service for many years, and has allowed us to educate countless people on trees and their myriad benefits. Tree Talk is an extemporaneous lesson by Ryan Davis, recorded opportunistically by his wife Allyson while out and about in the landscapes they love. He sometimes gets things wrong because he's just speaking from memory, and the pop-ups and fact checks come from two sources: the US Forest Service Southern Research Station's accounts of the species at hand, and the 5th edition of North American Trees by Dr. Richard Preston Jr. and Dr. Richard Braham (Ryan's college dendrology professor) of North Carolina State University.

Recorded on 08/29/25 in Currituck County, North Carolina, by Allyson "Sweetbae" Davis.