New Trees text:

This species was described by Bean (B738), who called it a ‘cheerful evergreen’ and assessed it as hardy in the milder parts of the British Isles. Several varieties have since been recognised, however, and a key for these is presented below. Recent selections available in commerce include ‘Port Wine’, ‘Purple Queen’, and ‘Stubbs Purple’ with a strong purplish suffusion through the tepals. ‘Stubbs Purple’ is said to be hardier than most (Eisenhut 2008). It is not clear if these darker-flowered cultivars are referable to var. figo or var. crassipes. The taxonomy of the plant formerly known as Michelia skin-neriana is dubious (see below) but it is horticulturally distinct, and the name Magnolia figo Skinneriana Group is provided here to recognise these differences.

Bean’s entry for Michelia figo:

An evergreen shrub ultimately 10 to 20 ft high, of bushy habit; young shoots densely clothed with short brown hairs. Leaves narrowly oval or slightly obovate, tapering towards both ends, the apex blunt, 11⁄2 to 4 in. long, 5⁄8 to 2 in. wide, furnished with brown down at first, finally nearly glabrous, dark glossy green; stalk 1⁄8 in. long, hairy like the shoots. Flowers very fragrant, produced in the leaf-axils, each on a brown, downy stalk 1⁄2 in. long; sepals and petals yellowish green stained with dull purple, 3⁄4 to 1 in. long; flower-buds at first enclosed by brown downy bracts. Bot. Mag., t. 1008.

Native of China; introduced according to Aiton in 1789. At Kew this shrub has to be given the protection of a cool greenhouse, but in the mildest parts of our islands it is hardy. It is a cheerful evergreen, not conspicuous for beauty of flower but one of the most fragrant of all shrubs. Two or three blossoms will fill a small greenhouse with their fruity perfume, which strongly recalls that of an old-fashioned sweet known as ‘pear-drops’. A succession of flowers is produced from April to summer.