Native plants · Georgia

Native plants of Schley County

10 plant species are recorded as native to Georgia in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in Schley County by USDA PLANTS. 7 of them have growing records you can filter by light, moisture, height and estimated cold hardiness.

County summary · USDA PLANTS and Kew WCVP

Schley County, Georgia

PLANTS records only 7 garden-ready natives here (under 30). County records are thin in some places; the Georgia list is a useful second check.

Native species: 10 Typical Georgia county: 129 (median of 159 counties)
Garden-ready natives: 7 Typical Georgia county: 58
Share by type (all 10 native species): Percent of the 10 native species in each growth type

Tree 60% (6)
Wildflower (forb) 30% (3)
Fern 10% (1)

Trees make up the largest share of the native list (60%), followed by wildflowers (30%).

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 8b (2023 map).

The native plant list

Garden-ready natives 7

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

Garden-ready native plants of Schley County, Georgia
Plant	Type	Height	Light	Water use	Hardy to
black willow Salix nigra	Tree	100 ft	Sun	High	Zone 1b
blackgum Nyssa sylvatica	Tree	95 ft	Shade-tolerant	Medium	Zone 5b
bristly buttercup Ranunculus hispidus	Wildflower (forb)	2.5 ft	Shade-tolerant	Medium	Zone 4a
coastal plain willow Salix caroliniana	Tree	33 ft	Sun–part shade	High	Zone 7b
red buckeye Aesculus pavia	Tree	25 ft	Shade-tolerant	High	Zone 5a
turkey oak Quercus laevis	Tree	40 ft	Sun	Medium	Zone 7a
water oak Quercus nigra	Tree	90 ft	Sun	High	Zone 5a

Other native species recorded here 3

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.

Carolina ponysfoot Dichondra carolinensis
Christmas fern Polystichum acrostichoides
standing-cypress Ipomopsis rubra

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, Schley County and Georgia
Measure	Schley County	Typical county	Statewide
Native species	10	129	1,750
Garden-ready natives	7	58	608
Tree	6	—	202
Shrub	0	—	91
Wildflower (forb)	3	—	908
Grass or grass-like	0	—	403
Vine	0	—	78
Fern	1	—	68

Neighboring counties

Counties that share a ZIP code with Schley County.

Macon County, GA 65 garden-ready
Marion County, GA 20 garden-ready
Sumter County, GA 94 garden-ready
Taylor County, GA 52 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: Schley County (county FIPS 13249), Georgia. 10 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

Independent reference site. No government affiliation or endorsement.