| Stars in the Landscape |
| Location: Lawn in front of
Fallerius Technical Center |
| This is Magnolia stellata, commonly known
as the Star Magnolia. It has been a favorite of landscapers since its
introduction in the 1860's. It grows as a shrub or small
tree. Even the tree form often has multiple trunks but grows
taller than the shrub form. Its name derives from the numerous
white, many-petaled flowers which cover the shrub in the Spring, even
before the leaves appear. It belongs to the Magnoliaceae (the Magnolia Family) which is one of the oldest of the plant families. It displays several features of primitive flowers: lack of differentiation between sepals and petals (all of the showy parts are alike and called "tepals"), a large and indefinite number of tepals, spiral arrangement of flower parts, etc. If the shrub is in bloom, count the white tepals on several flowers. You will see that the number varies from flower to flower! This shrub is a native of Japan where it grows in the highlands of the island of Honshu. It thrives in full sun but will perform in a wide variety of garden locations. It can be heavily pruned to keep it in bounds in your home landscape. Be sure to prune it in Spring, after it has flowered. Pruning it later in the year will remove next year's flower buds. This shrub was planted in memory of a "star" who was manager of the Word Processing Department at North Central State College. Judy Farmer was a wonderful colleague to the staff and faculty of NCSC and also to many people at OSU Mansfield. In the early days of computerized word processing Judy was expert at designing documents. She was one of the first to master the technique of inserting graphics into text documents. Judy was always eager to help colleagues in both institutions to produce publications that captured the attention of readers. Judy was a wonderfully warm person who was a great friend. Unfortunately she lost her life to heart disease at an early age. -- David Kramer
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