plant genus indigenous to subtropical Asia and eastern North America, very ornamental and frequently cultivated, 1748, named by Plumier from Magnolius, Latinized name of Pierre Magnol (1638-1715), French physician and botanist, professor of botany at Montpellier, who devised the systematic classification of plants, + abstract noun ending -ia. As the name of the pale pink color of magnolia blossoms, by 1931.
