Franklinia alatamaha
- Thread starter Jfox16
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No, not really, it grows bigger every year though.It's so beautiful!White flowers are the prettiest. I'd love to see the whole tree. Is it big?
The Ben Franklin Tree (Franklinia alatamaha) in the Tea Family (Theaceae). What an exceptionally fine, small, flowering tree and one with a darkly bittersweet history.
This tree, the only member of its genus, was only ever known, in the wild, from a very limited area along the Altamaha River in eastern Georgia, now U.S.A.
Furthermore, it was only seen a few times by men knowledgeable enough in botany and horticulture to appreciate the distinctiveness of this plant. The botanist William Bartram visited and collected seed at the site several times between 1765 and 1776. After that, the stand of wild tree disappeared and was never seen again. Fortunately the seeds Bartram collected germinated, and through subsequent propagation, the plant continues to live on in cultivation, gracing finer gardens across the globe.
What caused the initial rarity and subsequent wild extinction of the tree is not fully known. Though of course, by the late 18th Century, significant land use changes were underway in the then-British colony of Georgia.
This tree, the only member of its genus, was only ever known, in the wild, from a very limited area along the Altamaha River in eastern Georgia, now U.S.A.
Furthermore, it was only seen a few times by men knowledgeable enough in botany and horticulture to appreciate the distinctiveness of this plant. The botanist William Bartram visited and collected seed at the site several times between 1765 and 1776. After that, the stand of wild tree disappeared and was never seen again. Fortunately the seeds Bartram collected germinated, and through subsequent propagation, the plant continues to live on in cultivation, gracing finer gardens across the globe.
What caused the initial rarity and subsequent wild extinction of the tree is not fully known. Though of course, by the late 18th Century, significant land use changes were underway in the then-British colony of Georgia.
The Franklin tree reminds me of a flowering dogwood tree.
There many be a superficial resemblance, but remember, on Franklinia alatamaha you see a single flower with five petals.
On a 'Flowering' Dogwood, such as Cornus florida, you see a capitate inflorescence of many small flowers surrounded by (usually) four bracts. Of course, all species of Dogwood (Cornus) are flowering, though some do not have showy bracts.