Native plants · Georgia
Native plants of Montgomery County
31 plant species are recorded as native to Georgia in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in Montgomery County by USDA PLANTS. 19 of them have growing records you can filter by light, moisture, height and estimated cold hardiness.
County summary · USDA PLANTS and Kew WCVP
Montgomery County, Georgia
PLANTS records only 19 garden-ready natives here (under 30). County records are thin in some places; the Georgia list is a useful second check.
- Native species
- 31 Typical Georgia county: 129 (median of 159 counties)
- Garden-ready natives
- 19 Typical Georgia county: 58
- Share by type (all 31 native species)
-
Percent of the 31 native species in each growth type
Wildflowers make up the largest share of the native list (32%), followed by trees (29%).
The native plant list
Garden-ready natives 19
Native species with PLANTS growing records (height, light, moisture, minimum temperature). “—” means PLANTS has no value.
| Plant | Type | Height | Light | Water use | Hardy to |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| bedstraw St. Johnswort Hypericum galioides | Shrub | 2.5 ft | Sun | High | Zone 7a |
| blackjack oak Quercus marilandica | Tree | 25 ft | Sun | Low | Zone 6a |
| blue mistflower Conoclinium coelestinum | Wildflower (forb) | 3.2 ft | Shade-tolerant | Medium | Zone 6a |
| broadleaf signalgrass Urochloa platyphylla | Grass or grass-like | 3 ft | Sun | Medium | Zone 9a |
| brownseed paspalum Paspalum plicatulum | Grass or grass-like | 3.3 ft | Sun–part shade | Low | Zone 8a |
| 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 |
| coppery St. Johnswort Hypericum denticulatum | Wildflower (forb) | 2 ft | Sun–part shade | Medium | Zone 7b |
| dwarf huckleberry Gaylussacia dumosa | Shrub | 1.4 ft | Shade-tolerant | Low | Zone 5a |
| laurel oak Quercus laurifolia | Tree | 70 ft | Shade-tolerant | Medium | Zone 7a |
| orangegrass Hypericum gentianoides | Wildflower (forb) | 2 ft | Sun–part shade | Low | Zone 12a |
| red chokeberry Aronia arbutifolia | Shrub | 5 ft | Sun | High | Zone 5b |
| slender little bluestem Schizachyrium tenerum | Grass or grass-like | 3 ft | Sun | Medium | Zone 8b |
| St. Peterswort Hypericum crux-andreae | Shrub | 2 ft | Sun–part shade | Medium | Zone 6b |
| turkey oak Quercus laevis | Tree | 40 ft | Sun | Medium | Zone 7a |
| two-wing silverbell Halesia diptera | Tree | 15 ft | Sun–part shade | — | Zone 8a |
| variable panicgrass Dichanthelium commutatum | Grass or grass-like | 4.9 ft | Sun–part shade | Low | Zone 4b |
| water oak Quercus nigra | Tree | 90 ft | Sun | High | Zone 5a |
| willow oak Quercus phellos | Tree | 100 ft | Sun | High | Zone 5a |
No garden-ready natives match these filters. Try clearing one.
Other native species recorded here 12
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.
Hidden while “Garden-ready only” is on.
- beaked panicgrass Panicum anceps
- button eryngo Eryngium yuccifolium
- Carolina woollywhite Hymenopappus scabiosaeus
- cypress panicgrass Dichanthelium dichotomum
- green carpetweed Mollugo verticillata
- marsh rose gentian Sabatia dodecandra
- Nuttall's milkwort Polygala nuttallii
- sensitive fern Onoclea sensibilis
- southern crab apple Malus angustifolia
- St. Andrew's cross Hypericum hypericoides
- thymeleaf pinweed Lechea minor
- whorled milkweed Asclepias verticillata
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.
| Measure | Montgomery County | Typical county | Statewide |
|---|---|---|---|
| Native species | 31 | 129 | 1,750 |
| Garden-ready natives | 19 | 58 | 608 |
| Tree | 9 | — | 202 |
| Shrub | 5 | — | 91 |
| Wildflower (forb) | 10 | — | 908 |
| Grass or grass-like | 6 | — | 403 |
| Vine | 0 | — | 78 |
| Fern | 1 | — | 68 |
Neighboring counties
Counties that share a ZIP code with Montgomery County.
- Toombs County, GA 66 garden-ready
- Treutlen County, GA 28 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
- Montgomery County (county FIPS 13209), Georgia. 31 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