ved before bees appeared, the flowers developed to encourage pollination by beetles. As a result, the carpels of Magnolia flowers are tough, to avoid damage by eating and crawling beetles. Another primitive aspect of Magnolias is their lack of distinct sepals or petals.
The bark from M. officinalis has long been used in traditional Chinese medicine, where it is known as hou po.In Japan, M. obovata has been used in a similar manner. The aromatic bark containsmagnolol and honokiol, two polyphenol