Station 26: Cucumber Magnolia Tree

The tall straight tree is a Cucumber Magnolia. This tree is common in the southern Appalachian Mountains but rarely grows naturally in New England. Several cucumber magnolia trees are present in Edmund Woods, however. Seeds may have dispersed from a tree or trees planted as ornamentals. For example, one that was planted in the early 1900’s at the gravesite of Cyrus Gale II in the nearby Howard Street Cemetery was a possible source for seeds. That tree was cut down in about 2017 after it had largely succumbed to disease and maybe old age.