Magnolia or Mountain Laurel

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Zone 8A, Dallas Texas.

I have a plant that has popped up in two different places. Both areas are shady and wet. One is by an outdoor water facet we use to put water in a dog dish and near enough the back porch that is gets a great deal of shade. The other is against the west side of the house facing a neighbors yard. And he waters often enough to keep the garden on that side moist. And since it is between the houses, it only gets a few hours of sun a day.

The one by the dog dish is about 3 feet tall now. The leaves are about

6" long and about 1.5" inches at the widest points. It has about and inch long, narrow, pointy bud at the very end of the trunk on the top, like a something is about to bloom.

They leaves are close to the trunk, alternate, are not lobed, serated or hairy. The are shiney dark green on top and light dull green on the bottom, a sage color. Both ends are tapered. I tried pulling the one on the dog dish up, but it is impossible to do so by hand. I just ended up with a handful of leaves. I am going to have to dig it up since it is right next to the foundation and I don't want a tree or bush to cause foundation problems.

I moved the one on the east side of the house and even though the plant itself was only about a 6" high, it had a long tap root nearly as long.

The closest I can come to identifying it myself is some sort of Magnolia or Mountain Laurel. The leaves also look like Shingle Oak leaves. But the plant itself looks nothing like a tree since the leaves come directly off the trunk. Any ideas? Isn't 8A out of the Moutain Laurel's normal habitat and the wrong time of year for blooms?

I'll post pictures later.

[S. M. Henning]

It is not Mountain Laurel, Kalmia latifolia, since the leaves are too long. Mountain Laurel leaves are 2-3 inches long and never over 4 inches. It blooms from late May until the first of July

The normal range for Mountain Laurel is United States -- AL, CT, DE, FL, GA, IN, KY, LA, MA, ME, MD, MS, NC, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, SC, TN, VA, VT, WV

Also, Magnolias have large single flowers and Mountain Laurel has clusters of small dainty flowers.

Here is a key to identifying magnolias:

Key to the species of Magnolia

1. Flowers appearing before the leaves... Magnolia kobus
2. Flowers appearing with or after the leaves... 2
3. Leaves green beneath... 3
4. Leaves glaucous beneath... 4
5. Leaves widest near or below the middle, scattered along twig; winter terminal buds hairy... Magnolia acuminata
6. Leaves widest well above the middle, in terminal whorl-like clusters; winter terminal buds glabrous... Magnolia tripetala
7. Leaves acute to broadly rounded at base... Magnolia virginiana
8. Leaves distinctly cordate at base... Magnolia macrophylla

Hope this helps.

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Pictures are now in alt.binaries.pictures.garden.The bottom of the plant is devoid of leaves because I accidentally stripped them off when trying to pull the plant up.

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At this point, I think it is a magnolia. Now anyone care to guess what variety? I'm leaning toward umbrella. See the new pic in alt.binaries.pictures.gradens.

Depending on how large it gets, I may have to give it away if it survives a transplant. The only have a space that is about 10 ft from the side of the house.

Too bad too. I would love to find a place for a magnolia tree.