Many people begin to notice the arrival of spring with the large, beautiful blooms of the magnolia flower. Magnolia trees can be found in many parts of the world, and their beautiful forms have symbolic, medicinal, and visual meaning across cultures—and have for centuries. If you’re ever near a magnolia tree, though, look closely: you’ll notice that beetles, instead of bees, will be moving amongst the flowers.

So, why beetles over bees? The answer is simpler than you might think. Magnolias are so ancient that they were around long before bees came into existence. They’ve been around for over 100 million years, in fact, and beetles have existed for even longer , approximately 300 million years.

Named after the French botanist Pierre Magnol, magnolias belong to one of the oldest lineages of flowers on Earth. (Dinosaurs still walked the Earth at this time, to put it into perspective!) Given this ancient setting, the pollinators we’re most familiar with, butterflies and bees, had not yet evolved. Beetles were the primary insect pollinators for the time, and so they became the de facto agents for the magnolia’s survival.

This partnership between the flower and the beetle reveals itself in the magnolia’s look and scent. The flowers are large and shaped like a bowl, which is ideal for beetles to climb into. Their petals also boast more muted colors, as their partner pollinators navigate better through scent than sight. Which leads to the next, and perhaps most iconic, trait of the magnolia flower: its intoxicating scent that attracts beetles to it, meant to mimic the smell of fermenting or ripening fruit.

Another aspect of the magnolia that shows its advanced evolution is the sturdiness of the petals. Where many flowers usually have reputations for being delicate, the magnolia has developed thick, leathery petals. This is to withstand the beetle’s movement within its center, which can be clumsy and at times, rough.

As far as pollinators go, the beetle isn’t the most sophisticated. They can’t hover to collect nectar (or collect nectar at all) or perform more advanced pollinating behaviors. The way they pollinate is more of a happy accident. In their search for food, beetles will plow through petals of flowers, often leaving a mess behind. But in this process, they also get coated in pollen, which they carry on to the next flower, and the one after that, as they continue their search.

The beetle's method of pollinating, though not as sophisticated as that of bees or butterflies, has stood the test of time, at least for our dear magnolias. The ancient flower’s partnership with beetles is a testament to both of these agents’ ancient origins and resilience. With sturdy petals and a rich scent, the magnolia continues to thrive today, just as it did millions of years ago: through simple, time-tested evolution.

Magnolias, the beautiful pink and white flowers that bloom in early spring, have been around since dinosaurs roamed the Earth.

They're so old, in fact, that they rely on beetles instead of bees to pollinate them.

Beetles, who have been around for even longer than magnolias, predate bees by hundreds of millions of years.

The arrangement, makeup, and scent of magnolia flowers reflect their unique and ancient partnership with beetles.

Sources: Magnolias are so ancient they’re pollinated by beetles — because bees didn’t exist yet; The Botany of Magnolias

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