Native plants · Georgia

Native plants of Bryan County

71 plant species are recorded as native to Georgia in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in Bryan County by USDA PLANTS. 43 of them have growing records you can filter by light, moisture, height and estimated cold hardiness.

County summary · USDA PLANTS and Kew WCVP

Bryan County, Georgia

Native species: 71 Typical Georgia county: 129 (median of 159 counties)
Garden-ready natives: 43 Typical Georgia county: 58
Share by type (all 71 native species): Percent of the 71 native species in each growth type

Tree 27% (19)
Shrub 17% (12)
Wildflower (forb) 34% (24)
Grass or grass-like 4% (3)
Vine 8% (6)
Fern 10% (7)

Wildflowers make up the largest share of the native list (34%), followed by trees (27%).

Recorded native ranges can include long-established populations that spread from gardens; check your state’s native plant society list for local guidance. How native status is decided.

ZIP codes mainly in this county fall in USDA hardiness zone 9a (2023 map).

The native plant list

Garden-ready natives 43

Native species with PLANTS growing records (height, light, moisture, minimum temperature). “—” means PLANTS has no value.

Garden-ready native plants of Bryan County, Georgia
Plant	Type	Height	Light	Water use	Hardy to
American wisteria Wisteria frutescens	Vine	50 ft	Shade-tolerant	Medium	Zone 7a
bald cypress Taxodium distichum	Tree	130 ft	Sun–part shade	High	Zone 5b
bedstraw St. Johnswort Hypericum galioides	Shrub	2.5 ft	Sun	High	Zone 7a
blackjack oak Quercus marilandica	Tree	25 ft	Sun	Low	Zone 6a
cinnamon fern Osmunda cinnamomea	Fern	4.9 ft	Shade-tolerant	Medium	Zone 4a
coastal doghobble Leucothoe axillaris	Shrub	6.5 ft	Shade-tolerant	Low	Zone 7b
coastal plain willow Salix caroliniana	Tree	33 ft	Sun–part shade	High	Zone 7b
common sweetleaf Symplocos tinctoria	Tree	20 ft	Shade-tolerant	—	Zone 5a
dwarf azalea Rhododendron atlanticum	Shrub	2.3 ft	Shade-tolerant	High	Zone 8a
fetterbush lyonia Lyonia lucida	Shrub	6.6 ft	Shade-tolerant	Medium	Zone 7b
flowering dogwood Cornus florida	Tree	30 ft	Shade-tolerant	Low	Zone 4b
giant cutgrass Zizaniopsis miliacea	Grass or grass-like	9 ft	Sun	High	Zone 8b
graybark grape Vitis cinerea	Vine	50 ft	Sun–part shade	Medium	Zone 6b
groundnut Apios americana	Vine	1 ft	Shade-tolerant	Medium	Zone 5a
highbush blueberry Vaccinium corymbosum	Shrub	12 ft	Shade-tolerant	Medium	Zone 4a
live oak Quercus virginiana	Tree	50 ft	Sun–part shade	Medium	Zone 8a
longleaf pondweed Potamogeton nodosus	Wildflower (forb)	—	Sun	High	Zone 3b
mountain azalea Rhododendron canescens	Shrub	14 ft	Shade-tolerant	Medium	Zone 6a
narrowleaf blue-eyed grass Sisyrinchium angustifolium	Wildflower (forb)	2 ft	Sun–part shade	Medium	Zone 7a
narrowleaf silkgrass Pityopsis graminifolia	Wildflower (forb)	2.8 ft	Sun–part shade	Medium	Zone 7a
New Jersey tea Ceanothus americanus	Shrub	3 ft	Shade-tolerant	Low	Zone 4b
pickerelweed Pontederia cordata	Wildflower (forb)	3.2 ft	Sun	High	Zone 5a
planertree Planera aquatica	Tree	50 ft	Shade-tolerant	Medium	Zone 7a
pumpkin ash Fraxinus profunda	Tree	120 ft	Sun–part shade	High	Zone 5a
red buckeye Aesculus pavia	Tree	25 ft	Shade-tolerant	High	Zone 5a
red chokeberry Aronia arbutifolia	Shrub	5 ft	Sun	High	Zone 5b
red mulberry Morus rubra	Tree	70 ft	Shade-tolerant	Medium	Zone 4a
roundpod St. Johnswort Hypericum cistifolium	Shrub	2.5 ft	Sun	Medium	Zone 4a
running oak Quercus pumila	Shrub	3 ft	Sun	Low	Zone 8b
saw greenbrier Smilax bona-nox	Vine	4 ft	Shade-tolerant	Medium	Zone 5b
small-leaf arrowwood Viburnum obovatum	Tree	12 ft	Sun–part shade	—	Zone 7b
swamp azalea Rhododendron viscosum	Shrub	16 ft	Shade-tolerant	High	Zone 5b
swamp doghobble Eubotrys racemosus	Shrub	13 ft	Shade-tolerant	Medium	Zone 4a
swamp milkweed Asclepias incarnata	Wildflower (forb)	4.9 ft	Sun	High	Zone 3b
swamp titi Cyrilla racemiflora	Tree	30 ft	Shade-tolerant	—	Zone 6b
sweetscent Pluchea odorata	Wildflower (forb)	4.9 ft	Sun	Medium	Zone 6a
tenangle pipewort Eriocaulon decangulare	Wildflower (forb)	2.6 ft	Sun	Medium	Zone 6b
turkey oak Quercus laevis	Tree	40 ft	Sun	Medium	Zone 7a
water hickory Carya aquatica	Tree	85 ft	Sun–part shade	Medium	Zone 5b
water oak Quercus nigra	Tree	90 ft	Sun	High	Zone 5a
wax myrtle Morella cerifera	Tree	10 ft	Sun	High	Zone 7a
willow oak Quercus phellos	Tree	100 ft	Sun	High	Zone 5a
yaupon Ilex vomitoria	Tree	25 ft	Sun–part shade	Low	Zone 8a

Other native species recorded here 28

PLANTS has no growing records for these, so light, moisture, height and zone filters cannot include them. Many are wild species seldom sold by nurseries.

blackfruit spikerush Eleocharis melanocarpa
bog yelloweyed grass Xyris difformis
button eryngo Eryngium yuccifolium
Carolina leaf-flower Phyllanthus caroliniensis
Carolina ponysfoot Dichondra carolinensis
chinquapin Castanea pumila
Christmas fern Polystichum acrostichoides
coastal false asphodel Triantha racemosa
crossvine Bignonia capreolata
cylindricfruit primrose-willow Ludwigia glandulosa
dwarf sundew Drosera brevifolia
eastern blue-eyed grass Sisyrinchium atlanticum
ebony spleenwort Asplenium platyneuron
foxtail clubmoss Lycopodiella alopecuroides
grassy arrowhead Sagittaria graminea
Maryland milkwort Polygala mariana
netted chainfern Woodwardia areolata
procession flower Polygala incarnata
Richard's yelloweyed grass Xyris jupicai
sensitive fern Onoclea sensibilis
slender clubmoss Lycopodiella caroliniana
slender threeseed mercury Acalypha gracilens
southern dewberry Rubus trivialis
spindleroot Ludwigia hirtella
thin paspalum Paspalum setaceum
Viola ×primulifolia Viola ×primulifolia
woolly ragwort Packera tomentosa
zigzag bladderwort Utricularia subulata

Compared with Georgia

The typical county is the median of the 159 Georgia counties with PLANTS county records; the statewide figure counts every species native anywhere in the state. More species is not better or worse: counties differ in size, habitat and how thoroughly they have been surveyed.

Native species counts, Bryan County and Georgia
Measure	Bryan County	Typical county	Statewide
Native species	71	129	1,750
Garden-ready natives	43	58	608
Tree	19	—	202
Shrub	12	—	91
Wildflower (forb)	24	—	908
Grass or grass-like	3	—	403
Vine	6	—	78
Fern	7	—	68

Neighboring counties

Counties that share a ZIP code with Bryan County.

Bulloch County, GA 95 garden-ready
Liberty County, GA 138 garden-ready

Source & data date

Source: USDA NRCS PLANTS Database: county distribution records, native status and plant characteristics. CC0 (public domain dedication, per the data.gov catalog record).; Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP): native or introduced status by state. CC BY 3.0.; USGS US-RIIS (ver. 2.0): species listed as introduced are excluded. CC0.
Citation: USDA, NRCS. 2026. The PLANTS Database (https://plants.usda.gov, 11/04/2026). National Plant Data Team, Greensboro, NC USA.; Govaerts R. (ed.) (2026). WCVP: World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Facilitated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Data file dated 2026-06-04, http://sftp.kew.org/pub/data-repositories/WCVP/ (retrieved 2026-11-04). Paper: Govaerts R. et al. (2021) The World Checklist of Vascular Plants, a continuously updated resource for exploring global plant diversity. Scientific Data 8, 215.
Data date: Retrieved from PLANTS on November 4, 2026; WCVP data file dated June 4, 2026.
Zones: USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map (2023) ZIP table: PRISM Group, Oregon State University, https://prism.oregonstate.edu, accessed November 3, 2026. Plant zones on this site are our estimate, not the official map.
Scope: Bryan County (county FIPS 13029), Georgia. 71 native species from PLANTS county distribution records; garden-ready = species with a PLANTS characteristics record.
Method: A species is listed when it is recorded as native to the state in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in the county by USDA PLANTS. Species PLANTS labels both native and introduced are listed separately. Full method · All sources

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