The complete chloroplast genome of threatened Magnolia laevifolia, a rare ornamental shrub with strong aromatic flowers

In this study, we assembled the complete chloroplast (cp) genome of Magnolia laevifolia Y.W. Law & Y. F. Figlar endemic to Yunnan, China. The species is a rare and threatened evergreen shrub with great important for horticulture because of its attractive strong aromatic flowers. The cp genome of M. laevifolia was 160,120 bp in length and contained a pair of inverted repeat (IR, 26,588 bp) regions, which were separated by the small single copy (SSC, 18,799 bp) and the large single copy (LSC, 88,145 bp) regions. The cp genome encoded 131 genes including 86 protein-coding genes, 37 tRNA genes, and eight rRNA ribosomal genes. The overall AT content of M. laevifolia cp genome is 60.8%. The maximum likelihood phylogenetic analysis revealed that M. laevifolia was closely related to M. odora. This result will be helpful for the conservation, taxonomy, and phylogeny programs of the genus Magnolia.