Magnolia ofeliae is a tree 25-35 m high and reaches150cm from DAP. Its leaves reach 45cm in length and itsflowers ca. 14cm in diameter are white to cream with smallpurple spots on the base, its fruits on the other hand, arepolyphilic that reach 44 carpels. This species is endemic tothe Talpa de Allende municipality in Jalisco and is locatedbetween 500 and 900 meters above see level in thetransition of mountain mesophilic forest and tropicaldeciduous forest. The species was named in honor of themother of the first author (A.Vázquez).

Currently the ex situ collection of Magnolias of theUniversity of Guadalajara-CUCBA has two youngindividuals (3 years).

Two of the three known populations for this species werevisited on March 9 and 10, 2019, “Hacienda de SantaGertrudis” and “Palo Alto”, the first site with the guidanceof a villager, Baltazar Dueñas Curiel, who He also helpedin the collection of fruits and hosted the collectors. Bothsites had both mature and young individuals, with thesecond site having the least number of individuals. Whilecollecting herbarium specimens at the second site, thepresence of a pollinator beetle was observed within aflower, a fact of great importance since one of thehypotheses of the low number of individuals could be dueto lack of pollinators.

World Magnolia AdventuresMagnolia ofeliae:

Population decline CRCritically Endangered

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Sep 2020; 3(2): 1-2

Alondra Salomé Ortega Peña, Sergio Misael Gallegos Mendoza, Alejandro Zabalgoitia, Jesús Padilla Lepe , Baltazar Dueñas Curiel, Noelia Alvarez y J. Antonio

Vázquez-García

The reasons why this magnolia is currently under protection arethe threat due to the reduction of habitat and advance of theagricultural frontier, together with its reduced distribution; reasonswhy it is urgent to protect it in situ by proposing the forests where itis found as a Natural Protected Areas at state governmentinstances.

With the seeds collected, despite having applied three differenttreatments for germination, no results were obtained, even thoughthe analyzes carried out indicated that the seeds have 76%viability, in addition to showing an imbibition rate of 14%, whichindicates that it has no physical latency.

CONTACT: talaumaofeliae@Gmail.com

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