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Friday - September 26, 2008

From: Dacula, GA
Region: Southeast
Topic: Trees
Title: Trees native to North Georgia
Answered by: Nan Hampton

QUESTION:

What trees are native to North Georgia, (Blue Ridge Mountain, Elijay, Helen) area? Need info. for daughters school report.

ANSWER:

Here's how you find the information to make such a list:

1.  On our Native Plant Database do a COMBINATION SEARCH choosing Georgia from the "Select State or Province" option and Tree from the "Habit (general appearance)".  This will give you a list of 212 species.  Now these species are native to ALL of Georgia.  To find the ones native to North Georgia you need to:

2.  Click on the botanical name of the tree on the list.  This will take you to the tree's webpage in our Native Plant Database.  Scroll down to the bottom of that page to ADDITIONAL RESOURCES and click on the USDA link for the tree.  This will take you to the USDA Plant Database page for the tree,

3.  Scroll down the USDA Plant Database page until you see the map.  When you click on Georgia in that map it will give you a map of Georgia and highlight the counties where the tree is found. You can compare this map to a map of the counties of Georgia from Census Finder to learn the names of the counties.

This will take you a little bit of time, but you will be able to make your list of trees native to North Georgia.  For instance, the first tree on the list, Abies fraseri (Fraser fir), is found only in Fannin County.   The second tree on the list, Acer barbatum (southern sugar maple), is found in Walker, Floyd, and Cherokee Counties in the north and in other counties across the center and in the southwest corner of Georgia. 

 

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