14 DAY TRIAL // Dinosaurs enjoyed their odor, as these ancient flowers exist since the Cretaceous Epoch (145.5 to 65.5 million years ago).
They existed also in Europe till the arrival of the glaciations.
But today, they are restricted to subtropical climes.
About 60 % of magnolia species are found in Asia, with over 40 % growing in southern China (but many also in Japan).
The other species are found in the Americas.
But even if they bloom your garden, in the wild their situation is critical.
131 of the 245 known species of wild magnolia trees are endangered, according to a report from the Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) and Fauna and Flora International (FFI).
These plants survived over 100 million years of geologic and climatic upheaval to be wiped away by the human made deforestation.
"There is a strong chance that these species will become extinct unless action is taken now," said Sara Oldfield of BGCI.
Magnolias are a kind of canary in a coal mine, sensitive indicators of the forest's health.
"We now have a choice. We can use the new information to conserve these important trees and restore their forest habitats, or we can catalog their extinction. The second option would be a tragedy." said Oldfield.
Magnolias' habitat is threatened from banana plantations in China to coffee plantations in Colombia or logging concessions in the Caribbean, but the magnolia trees themselves are overexploited for timber and medicinal purposes.
A team led by Adrian Newton, of the U.K.'s Bournemouth University, mapped the geographical area of each magnolia species employing information from herbaria and previous researches.
This data was compared to a map of global forest cover made from satellite imagery to assess the health of the forests that contain magnolia species.
"If the density of trees was less than 40 %, it was considered to be deforested and the magnolias there at risk," said Newton.
Some species, like Magnolia wolfii, with a limited areal in a small Colombian, were found to be critically endangered.
In August 2006, a team could find only three fully grown M. wolfii trees and two saplings remaining in a five-acre (two-hectare) forest relict surrounded by coffee plantations.
"A huge range of other flowering plants growing in the same areas as the magnolias are also going to be at risk," said Martin Gardner, a plant conservationist at Scotland's Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RGBE).
Moreover, magnolias sustain an array of wildlife species, like insects, mammals and birds delivering pollen and seeds.
"The Mexican endemic species Magnolia schiedeana is pollinated by a beetle, Cyclocephala jalapensis," said Newton.
That beetle, endemic to this region, "appears to depend on the magnolia flowers for adult nutrition."
"Quite simply we need to put a stop to unsustainable tree felling," said Gardner.
Continued cultivation can save some species from extinction.
"We need to ensure that all species are in cultivation in botanic gardens, so that we can propagate the most vulnerable species and get them back into the wild." said Oldfield.