THE TREES OF ATLANTA

Magnolia grandiflora
I was jogging the other day in Atlanta’s Piedmont Park, and there I spied a magnificent magnolia tree. One of the branches of this magnolia, thicker than a fat man’s girth, swept like a couch upon which a fat man had sat for many years, and upon this branch children had clambered, their legs swinging toward the ground. Parents took photographs. The flowers had opened on this magnolia, like stars shining in a deep green sky. The leaves are dark, stiff, and leathery, and often scruffy underneath, with yellow-brown pubescence. Did you know that at one time the English sold small magnolia trees for five guineas each (but later the price fell to half a guinea)? Once, a movie was made about magnolias. Or I assume that’s what it was about, since it had the word magnolias in the title. I never saw that movie. But I had a magnolia tree in my backyard while growing up. That magnolia tree is still there, just like this one here, and it does not look like either will be going anywhere for some time. Sometimes I wonder what a guinea is, and sometimes I wonder if I should see the magnolia movie, but likely I’ll remain ignorant on both accounts.