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Native plants recorded in your state and county

Native plants · Georgia

Native plants of Pierce County

45 plant species are recorded as native to Georgia in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in Pierce County by USDA PLANTS. 25 of them have growing records you can filter by light, moisture, height and estimated cold hardiness. 1 more species is listed as both native and introduced and kept in a separate section.

County summary · USDA PLANTS and Kew WCVP

Pierce County, Georgia

PLANTS records only 25 garden-ready natives here (under 30). County records are thin in some places; the Georgia list is a useful second check.

Native species
45 Typical Georgia county: 129 (median of 159 counties)
Garden-ready natives
25 Typical Georgia county: 58
Share by type (all 45 native species)
Percent of the 45 native species in each growth type
Tree 27% (12)
Shrub 24% (11)
Wildflower (forb) 24% (11)
Grass or grass-like 4% (2)
Vine 13% (6)
Fern 7% (3)

Trees make up the largest share of the native list (27%), followed by shrubs (24%).

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 zones 8b to 9a (2023 map).

The native plant list

Cold hardiness is estimated from each plant’s PLANTS minimum temperature. How we estimate it.

Garden-ready natives 25

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

Garden-ready native plants of Pierce County, Georgia
PlantType HeightLight Water useHardy to
American witchhazel Hamamelis virginiana Tree 20 ft Sun–part shade Medium Zone 4b
bigleaf snowbell Styrax grandifolius Tree 10 ft Sun–part shade — Zone 4b
butterfly milkweed Asclepias tuberosa Wildflower (forb) 2 ft Sun Low Zone 4a
cat greenbrier Smilax glauca Vine 1 ft Shade-tolerant Medium Zone 6a
common buttonbush Cephalanthus occidentalis Tree 15 ft Shade-tolerant High Zone 4a
common sweetleaf Symplocos tinctoria Tree 20 ft Shade-tolerant — Zone 5a
coral greenbrier Smilax walteri Vine 1 ft Shade-tolerant High Zone 6b
cypress swamp sedge Carex joorii Grass or grass-like 4.5 ft Shade-tolerant High Zone 7a
dwarf huckleberry Gaylussacia dumosa Shrub 1.4 ft Shade-tolerant Low Zone 5a
dwarf witchalder Fothergilla gardenii Shrub 4 ft Sun–part shade High Zone 6b
Florida bully Sideroxylon reclinatum Shrub 2 ft — — Zone 7a
Gulf Sebastian-bush Ditrysinia fruticosa Shrub 12 ft Shade-tolerant Low Zone 5b
highbush blueberry Vaccinium corymbosum Shrub 12 ft Shade-tolerant Medium Zone 4a
laurel greenbrier Smilax laurifolia Vine 1 ft Shade-tolerant High Zone 6b
laurel oak Quercus laurifolia Tree 70 ft Shade-tolerant Medium Zone 7a
loblolly bay Gordonia lasianthus Tree 65 ft Shade-tolerant High Zone 7a
muscadine Vitis rotundifolia Vine 30 ft Sun–part shade Medium Zone 5b
red maple Acer rubrum Tree 68 ft Sun–part shade High Zone 2b
redbay Persea borbonia Tree 70 ft Shade-tolerant High Zone 8a
river birch Betula nigra Tree 70 ft Sun High 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
swamp azalea Rhododendron viscosum Shrub 16 ft Shade-tolerant High Zone 5b
tuliptree Liriodendron tulipifera Tree 120 ft Sun Medium Zone 5b
turkey oak Quercus laevis Tree 40 ft Sun Medium Zone 7a

Other native species recorded here 20

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.

  • Adam's needle Yucca filamentosa
  • Appalachian clubmoss Huperzia appalachiana
  • Atlantic poison oak Toxicodendron pubescens
  • bog yelloweyed grass Xyris difformis
  • crossvine Bignonia capreolata
  • grassy arrowhead Sagittaria graminea
  • gum bully Sideroxylon lanuginosum
  • hairy pinweed Lechea mucronata
  • humped bladderwort Utricularia gibba
  • netted chainfern Woodwardia areolata
  • piedmont staggerbush Lyonia mariana
  • procession flower Polygala incarnata
  • Richard's yelloweyed grass Xyris jupicai
  • sand spikerush Eleocharis montevidensis
  • sidebeak pencilflower Stylosanthes biflora
  • southern bladderwort Utricularia juncea
  • southern dewberry Rubus trivialis
  • spindleroot Ludwigia hirtella
  • sundial lupine Lupinus perennis
  • Virginia chainfern Woodwardia virginica
Also listed as native and introduced here 1

PLANTS labels these species both native and introduced in this state: some forms are native and others were brought in from elsewhere. Most gardeners should choose plants from the main list.

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, Pierce County and Georgia
MeasurePierce CountyTypical countyStatewide
Native species 45 129 1,750
Garden-ready natives 25 58 608
Tree 12 — 202
Shrub 11 — 91
Wildflower (forb) 11 — 908
Grass or grass-like 2 — 403
Vine 6 — 78
Fern 3 — 68

Neighboring counties

Counties that share a ZIP code with Pierce County.

Look up another ZIP

Matches your ZIP to the county it mostly lies in, then lists the plants recorded as native to your state (Kew’s World Checklist and USDA PLANTS) and recorded in that county by USDA PLANTS.

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
Pierce County (county FIPS 13229), Georgia. 45 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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