Native plants · Georgia

Native plants of Twiggs County

34 plant species are recorded as native to Georgia in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in Twiggs County by USDA PLANTS. 15 of them have growing records you can filter by light, moisture, height and estimated cold hardiness.

County summary · USDA PLANTS and Kew WCVP

Twiggs County, Georgia

PLANTS records only 15 garden-ready natives here (under 30). County records are thin in some places; the Georgia list is a useful second check.

Native species: 34 Typical Georgia county: 129 (median of 159 counties)
Garden-ready natives: 15 Typical Georgia county: 58
Share by type (all 34 native species): Percent of the 34 native species in each growth type

Tree 29% (10)
Shrub 6% (2)
Wildflower (forb) 32% (11)
Grass or grass-like 12% (4)
Vine 3% (1)
Fern 18% (6)

Wildflowers make up the largest share of the native list (32%), followed by trees (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 8b (2023 map).

The native plant list

Garden-ready natives 15

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

Garden-ready native plants of Twiggs County, Georgia
Plant	Type	Height	Light	Water use	Hardy to
American holly Ilex opaca	Tree	40 ft	Shade-tolerant	Medium	Zone 5a
blackjack oak Quercus marilandica	Tree	25 ft	Sun	Low	Zone 6a
deerberry Vaccinium stamineum	Shrub	16 ft	Shade-tolerant	Low	Zone 5a
dwarf palmetto Sabal minor	Tree	9 ft	Shade-tolerant	High	Zone 8a
giant cane Arundinaria gigantea	Shrub	25 ft	Sun	Medium	Zone 5a
gray goldenrod Solidago nemoralis	Wildflower (forb)	2 ft	Sun	Medium	Zone 4a
laurel oak Quercus laurifolia	Tree	70 ft	Shade-tolerant	Medium	Zone 7a
parsley hawthorn Crataegus marshallii	Tree	25 ft	Shade-tolerant	Medium	Zone 7a
prairie fleabane Erigeron strigosus	Wildflower (forb)	3 ft	Sun	Medium	Zone 4b
red buckeye Aesculus pavia	Tree	25 ft	Shade-tolerant	High	Zone 5a
smooth sumac Rhus glabra	Tree	12 ft	Sun	Low	Zone 4a
Spanish moss Tillandsia usneoides	Vine	—	Shade-tolerant	Medium	Zone 9b
sugarberry Celtis laevigata	Tree	80 ft	Shade-tolerant	High	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 19

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.

anisescented goldenrod Solidago odora
bluntlobe cliff fern Woodsia obtusa
Christmas fern Polystichum acrostichoides
cylindricfruit primrose-willow Ludwigia glandulosa
ebony spleenwort Asplenium platyneuron
giant ironweed Vernonia gigantea
globe flatsedge Cyperus echinatus
hairy lipfern Cheilanthes lanosa
juniper leaf Polypremum procumbens
littlehead nutrush Scleria oligantha
lobed spleenwort Asplenium pinnatifidum
sensitive fern Onoclea sensibilis
sixweeks fescue Vulpia octoflora
slender threeseed mercury Acalypha gracilens
small woodland sunflower Helianthus microcephalus
spiked crested coralroot Hexalectris spicata
thin paspalum Paspalum setaceum
Virginia snakeroot Aristolochia serpentaria
Virginia strawberry Fragaria virginiana

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, Twiggs County and Georgia
Measure	Twiggs County	Typical county	Statewide
Native species	34	129	1,750
Garden-ready natives	15	58	608
Tree	10	—	202
Shrub	2	—	91
Wildflower (forb)	11	—	908
Grass or grass-like	4	—	403
Vine	1	—	78
Fern	6	—	68

Neighboring counties

Counties that share a ZIP code with Twiggs County.

Bibb County, GA 88 garden-ready
Bleckley County, GA 12 garden-ready
Jones County, GA 35 garden-ready
Wilkinson County, GA 21 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: Twiggs County (county FIPS 13289), Georgia. 34 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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