A rare ornamental tree native to Georgia (also called the Franklin tree) with white flowers and smooth bark, now extinct in the wild.
Named after Benjamin Franklin by Scottish botanist John Bartram in the 1770s, using the Latinized suffix '-ia.' It's a fitting honor—the tree was named for a man who embodied American innovation and knowledge.
Franklinia is one of the most tragic plant stories: it vanished from the wild by the 1800s, but survived in cultivation from just a few specimens—it's literally a tree saved by gardeners, and every wild franklinia tree alive today descends from those rescued survivors!
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