Franklinia altamaha

Drawing of the flowering branch and fruits of the Franklin tree (Franklinia alatamaha) by William Bartram in Travels. It was discovered by William and John Bartram during a collecting trip in Georgia and named for friend Benjamin Franklin. This small understory tree in the tea family is native to the Southeast and has been extinct in the wild since the early nineteenth century. Thanks to the Bartrams’s collecting, the tree survives as a cultivated ornamental.