Native plants · Georgia

Native plants of Butts County

33 plant species are recorded as native to Georgia in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in Butts County by USDA PLANTS. 9 of them have growing records you can filter by light, moisture, height and estimated cold hardiness.

County summary · USDA PLANTS and Kew WCVP

Butts County, Georgia

PLANTS records only 9 garden-ready natives here (under 30). County records are thin in some places; the Georgia list is a useful second check.

Native species: 33 Typical Georgia county: 129 (median of 159 counties)
Garden-ready natives: 9 Typical Georgia county: 58
Share by type (all 33 native species): Percent of the 33 native species in each growth type

Tree 15% (5)
Shrub 12% (4)
Wildflower (forb) 36% (12)
Grass or grass-like 9% (3)
Fern 27% (9)

Wildflowers make up the largest share of the native list (36%), followed by ferns (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 8a (2023 map).

The native plant list

Garden-ready natives 9

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

Garden-ready native plants of Butts County, Georgia
Plant	Type	Height	Light	Water use	Hardy to
blackjack oak Quercus marilandica	Tree	25 ft	Sun	Low	Zone 6a
bristly buttercup Ranunculus hispidus	Wildflower (forb)	2.5 ft	Shade-tolerant	Medium	Zone 4a
farkleberry Vaccinium arboreum	Tree	28 ft	Shade-tolerant	Medium	Zone 6a
narrowleaf evening primrose Oenothera fruticosa	Wildflower (forb)	3.3 ft	Shade-tolerant	High	Zone 4a
nodding lady's tresses Spiranthes cernua	Wildflower (forb)	1.5 ft	Sun	High	Zone 3b
rattlesnake fern Botrychium virginianum	Fern	1.4 ft	Shade-tolerant	Medium	Zone 3b
small white violet Viola macloskeyi	Wildflower (forb)	6 in	Shade-tolerant	High	Zone 4b
swamp chestnut oak Quercus michauxii	Tree	80 ft	Sun	Medium	Zone 5a
willow oak Quercus phellos	Tree	100 ft	Sun	High	Zone 5a

Other native species recorded here 24

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.

Blue Ridge blueberry Vaccinium pallidum
bristly locust Robinia hispida
broad beechfern Phegopteris hexagonoptera
Carolina clover Trifolium carolinianum
Christmas fern Polystichum acrostichoides
clammy hedgehyssop Gratiola neglecta
Curtiss' milkwort Polygala curtissii
cutleaf grapefern Botrychium dissectum
ebony spleenwort Asplenium platyneuron
Elliott's bentgrass Agrostis elliottiana
Elliott's bluestem Andropogon gyrans
fan clubmoss Lycopodium digitatum
fragrant sumac Rhus aromatica
hairy lipfern Cheilanthes lanosa
oak mistletoe Phoradendron leucarpum
purple cliffbrake Pellaea atropurpurea
rue anemone Thalictrum thalictroides
seedbox Ludwigia alternifolia
smallflower phacelia Phacelia dubia
sparselobe grapefern Botrychium biternatum
St. Andrew's cross Hypericum hypericoides
thickleaf phlox Phlox carolina
witchgrass Panicum capillare
woodland pinkroot Spigelia marilandica

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, Butts County and Georgia
Measure	Butts County	Typical county	Statewide
Native species	33	129	1,750
Garden-ready natives	9	58	608
Tree	5	—	202
Shrub	4	—	91
Wildflower (forb)	12	—	908
Grass or grass-like	3	—	403
Vine	0	—	78
Fern	9	—	68

Neighboring counties

Counties that share a ZIP code with Butts County.

Henry County, GA 18 garden-ready
Lamar County, GA 17 garden-ready
Monroe County, GA 23 garden-ready
Newton County, GA 27 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: Butts County (county FIPS 13035), Georgia. 33 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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