Magnolias in bloom cover the city with a wave of colour

From Aliados to the Jardim Botânico, from Praça Francisco Sá Carneiro to the Jardins do Palácio de Cristal, if we consider only public spaces, the magnolias are said to announce Spring, since they give flowers even before presenting leaf.

At this time, the city is dressed in shades of white, pink and purple/lilac, the dominant colours of the species of the Magnoliaceae family in Porto.

Many of the specimens are found in private gardens and backyards, but there are three arboreal ensembles classified as "Public Interest". There are 12 examples of magnolia grandiflora (large-flowered magnolias) in Praça 9 de Abril, commonly referred to as Jardim da Arca de Água, the magnolias of centenary large flowers of Jardim Marques de Oliveira, better known as Jardim de São Lázaro, and, finally, a magnolia grandiflora, with an imposing 22 meters high and almost similar canopy projection, implanted in the jardins da Casa Tait.

The genus name is dedicated to Pierre Magnol, an 18th-century French botanist who was the director of the Montpellier Botanical Garden. According to scholars in the field, most likely the first flowering plants that appeared in the history of the planet resembled the current magnolias, since the fossils of older flowers that are known to have structures very similar to those of this botanical genus.