The flowers can be eaten pickled. they can also be used dehydrated as a spice and as a sweet-tasting condiment with spicy undertones.

In traditional Chinese medicine, the bark and the flower of this tree are used to treat digestive problems, asthma, and depression. Its bark is used to help lower the fever. It is also a stimulant tonic and is used in some countries in the treatment of malaria and rheumatism. An herbal beverage made from a decoction of the bark used externally as a rinse or as a compress soothes pimples and itches caused by heat as well as disinfecting wounds.

Extracts taken from its leaves help to lower blood pressure.

The M. Grandiflora flowers are used in both the cosmetics and perfumery industry.

Its wood is hard, resistant, and white. it turns brown when exposed to air and is used to manufacture baskets, cradles, and other pieces of furniture.

The Magnolia genre is eponymously named after Pierre Magnol, a botanist, who was director of the Montpellier Botanical Garden, the oldest in France. The first identified species of this kind was the magnolia virginiana, found by missionaries who had been sent to North America in the 1680s. In the 18th century the species magnolia grandiflora was identified. It is today the best-known species of the kind as it is extensively used as an ornamental tree in subtropical and temperate regions. Magnolia x soulangeana is a hybrid resulting from the crossing of magnolia liliflora and magnolia denudata. Both native to China and Japan, these species were brought in the late 18th century to London’s botanical garden, Kew Gardens. A century later they were taken to France, where Etienne Soulange-Bodin, horticulturist and founder of the Royal Horticultural Institute of Fromont, near Paris, crossed the two species which resulted in this new species named after him as was common at the time.