Umbrella magnolia has a wedge-shaped leaf base. Twigs and buds are glabrous. The trunk and branches are a mottled, light gray color. Widespreading main branches form an open, irregular crown. The tree is often multi-stemmed.
Flowers are white with an unpleasant odor.
Fruit has a rosy cast to the immature cone. Seeds are red and ripen in September or October. This species grows in dense thickets along small streams in the rugged hill sections of western Scioto County, now a part of the Shawnee State Forest. Occasionally the umbrella magnolia is planted for ornamental purposes or used as grafting understock for cultivars of other magnolias.