The Ripening

I have done many scans of magnolias over the years, flowers fruits and leaves. These are from an umbrella magnolia (Magnolia tripetala) tree. It’s a small-medium sized tree with unpleasant smelling white flowers and large tropical-looking leaves.  Magnolias are among the most primitive of all flowering plants; evolving before bees appeared, the flowers developed to encourage pollination by beetles.  The large scarlet seeds are suspended for a time by thin threads, possibly to attract birds.