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Native plants recorded in your state and county

Native plants · Georgia

Native plants of Polk County

42 plant species are recorded as native to Georgia in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in Polk 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

Polk 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
42 Typical Georgia county: 129 (median of 159 counties)
Garden-ready natives
19 Typical Georgia county: 58
Share by type (all 42 native species)
Percent of the 42 native species in each growth type
Tree 24% (10)
Shrub 10% (4)
Wildflower (forb) 33% (14)
Grass or grass-like 2% (1)
Vine 2% (1)
Fern 29% (12)

Wildflowers make up the largest share of the native list (33%), followed by ferns (29%).

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

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

Garden-ready natives 19

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

Garden-ready native plants of Polk County, Georgia
PlantType HeightLight Water useHardy to
American water-willow Justicia americana Wildflower (forb) 2.5 ft Shade-tolerant Medium Zone 4b
bitternut hickory Carya cordiformis Tree 75 ft Sun Medium Zone 2b
black willow Salix nigra Tree 100 ft Sun High Zone 1b
blackjack oak Quercus marilandica Tree 25 ft Sun Low Zone 6a
Canadian lousewort Pedicularis canadensis Wildflower (forb) 1.3 ft Shade-tolerant Medium Zone 3a
coastal plain willow Salix caroliniana Tree 33 ft Sun–part shade High Zone 7b
narrowleaf silkgrass Pityopsis graminifolia Wildflower (forb) 2.8 ft Sun–part shade Medium Zone 7a
New York fern Thelypteris noveboracensis Fern 1.5 ft Shade-tolerant Low Zone 4b
northern maidenhair Adiantum pedatum Fern 1.3 ft Shade-tolerant Medium Zone 3b
oakleaf hydrangea Hydrangea quercifolia Shrub 6 ft Sun Medium Zone 7a
pawpaw Asimina triloba Tree 25 ft Shade-tolerant Medium Zone 4b
pignut hickory Carya glabra Tree 80 ft Sun–part shade Medium Zone 4a
rattlesnake fern Botrychium virginianum Fern 1.4 ft Shade-tolerant Medium Zone 3b
swamp azalea Rhododendron viscosum Shrub 16 ft Shade-tolerant High Zone 5b
umbrella-tree Magnolia tripetala Tree 30 ft Shade-tolerant Medium Zone 7a
Virginia bluebells Mertensia virginica Wildflower (forb) 2.3 ft Shade-tolerant High Zone 4b
Virginia pine Pinus virginiana Tree 70 ft Sun Low Zone 5a
water oak Quercus nigra Tree 90 ft Sun High Zone 5a
willow oak Quercus phellos Tree 100 ft Sun High Zone 5a

Other native species recorded here 23

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 and Eve Aplectrum hyemale
  • Blue Ridge blueberry Vaccinium pallidum
  • broad beechfern Phegopteris hexagonoptera
  • Christmas fern Polystichum acrostichoides
  • cutleaf grapefern Botrychium dissectum
  • dwarf crested iris Iris cristata
  • ebony spleenwort Asplenium platyneuron
  • hairy lipfern Cheilanthes lanosa
  • hairy skullcap Scutellaria elliptica
  • heartleaf foamflower Tiarella cordifolia
  • longbract wild indigo Baptisia bracteata
  • maidenhair spleenwort Asplenium trichomanes
  • marginal woodfern Dryopteris marginalis
  • netted chainfern Woodwardia areolata
  • robin's plantain Erigeron pulchellus
  • southern woodland violet Viola hirsutula
  • striped prince's pine Chimaphila maculata
  • twoflower melicgrass Melica mutica
  • Venus' pride Houstonia purpurea
  • walking fern Asplenium rhizophyllum
  • white colicroot Aletris farinosa
  • wild yam Dioscorea villosa
  • woman's tobacco Antennaria plantaginifolia

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, Polk County and Georgia
MeasurePolk CountyTypical countyStatewide
Native species 42 129 1,750
Garden-ready natives 19 58 608
Tree 10 — 202
Shrub 4 — 91
Wildflower (forb) 14 — 908
Grass or grass-like 1 — 403
Vine 1 — 78
Fern 12 — 68

Neighboring counties

Counties that share a ZIP code with Polk 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
Polk County (county FIPS 13233), Georgia. 42 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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