SPANISH FORT, Ala. — As local naturalist Fred Nation escorted retired Duke professor J. Bolling Sullivan, Ph.D., through hot humid woods at Blakeley State Park last weekend in search of unusual species of moths, little did either know they would stumble across a plant rarer than the moths they were seeking.

It was the magnolia pyramidate — popularly known as the southern magnolia and sometimes called a cucumber tree. “

One of the rarest magnolias in North America” is how the tree is described by the Center for Plant Conservation. Primary custodian for the plant in the National Collection of Endangered Plants is The Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University.

An internationally published expert on moths, Sullivan, of Beauford, N.C., came to Blakeley Park searching for moths because of the plant’s diverse plant life that provides a habitat for moths, he said.

See the rest of this story in the July 3 Daphne Bulletin.