The origins of "Magnolia × wieseneri" are obscure, but it is thought to have been a result of deliberate cross-breeding between the parent species some time in the 19th century or earlier in Japan, where it is known as "Gyo Kusui" or "Ukesaki Oyama-renage". It entered European horticulture at the 1889 Paris Exposition, where it was on display at the Japanese Court stand. From here, it was collected for Kew Gardens, and named "Magnolia × watsonii" by Joseph Hooker in 1891. However, Élie-Abel Carrière had named a specimen six months earlier in 1890 after a Mr Wiesener, who had purchased a plant from a Japanese horticulturist at the Trocadéro at the same time as the Exposition, and hence the French botanist's name was preserved under International Code of Botanical Nomenclature naming rules.