Franklin Tree
( Franklinia alatamaha)
The Franklin Tree (Franklinia alatamaha) is a flowering tree native to the south eastern United States first documented by science in 1785.
The Franklin tree was only found to grow plentiful in a three acre section of land on the banks of the Altamaha River in Georgia. Every Franklin tree alive today descends from the seeds gathered by botanist William Bartramhas in 1776. The Franklin tree has not existed in the wild since 1790 and the exact cause of its extinction in the wild is unknown. One theory for its extinction is that a pathogen from a nearby cotton plantation was carried downstream by erosion.
The Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University (https://arboretum.harvard.edu/) is devoted to the preservation and remembrance of the Franklin tree.