Franklin Tree

Description
Scientific Name: Franklinia alatamaha
Common Names: Franklinia, Ben Franklin Tree, Franklin Tree, Lost Franklinia
Plant Type: Small deciduous tree.
Height: 10 to 20 feet.
Native Habitat: Best grown in organically rich, medium moisture, well-drained soils in full sun to part shade. Must have good soil drainage. Consider raised plantings in poorly-drained heavy clay soils such as those present in much of the St. Louis area. Perhaps best in full sun in northern climates, but appreciates some afternoon shade in hot summer climates. May not be reliably winter hardy in the northern. Hard to transplant because of its sparsely fibrous root system, and is best left undisturbed once planted in the landscape.
Native Range: Southeastern United States.
Cultivation: Franklinia humus-rich acid soil, and water it during dry spells, especially when young. Good drainage is essential, so consider putting it on an elevated spot or artificial mound. It blooms most profusely in full sun, but in hot dry climates partial or dappled shade might give the best overall results. Sometimes this plant will try to grow as a shrub, but it can usually be trained into tree form. Franklinia is easy to grow from seed, and such a plant will often reach blooming size by the sixth year.
Related Species: There are no other species in this genus. The plant is distantly related to Loblolly-bay (Gordonia lasianthus), and to the Camellias and Stewartias (such as Stewartia ovata).
Flowering Time: July to August.

The Lost Franklinia is apparently extinct in the wild. All known living specimens are crops grown probably descended from a few trees (or maybe just a tree) in the garden of the eighteenth century botanist William Bartram and John. Bartram discovered the species in 1765, when they found a small stand of trees on a sandy hill near the Altamaha River in Coastal Georgia. These trees in the coming decades disappeared, possibly destroyed by clearing activities in the field. Despite numerous investigations no other wild specimens have ever been found. The Lost Franklinia is Ben Franklin Tree, or Tree Franklin, a name given him by Bartram in honor of their friend Benjamin Franklin. The species name "Alatamaha" is an old spelling for the name of the river, on which the plant was discovered.

Cultivated specimens Franklinia bushy plants are usually less than 20 meters high, often with multiple trunks. The tree does not bloom until late summer, when it bears attractive three-inch flowers with white petals and orange stamens. Individual flowers open over a long period, even in mid-fall. The fruit is a small, round capsule with a number of flat seeds. Leaves turn vibrant orange-red in late autumn before dropping. Although the only known wild trees growing in Georgia, cultivated specimens usually best in the northern regions. The poorly drained clay soils found in many parts of the South increases the susceptibility to root rot diseases, and there are indications that the current (or former) cotton-growing areas, a pathogen that kill the plant port.

The species can be successfully moved to the south, but it is difficult to know beforehand whether a particular place implants, has the right conditions. The good cold hardness of the surviving plants, suggesting that Franklinia may originally have been forced from the North originally, but had to migrate south during the Ice Age to the extreme cold and the repeated incursions of the ice to escape. But could be the conditions in the south, less suitable for them to have the Ice Age ended. If it has stranded there, it could begin to die as the climate has warmed up again. The plants of Bartram had discovered the last survivors of the once much larger population. Conceivable that kind could escape from cultivation and re-establish himself free in the wild. Deliberate attempts to restore it can be performed. But it is doubtful that the species could survive on its own for a longer period. Because existing systems are so closely related, as a group they may not have needed genetic diversity to resist new diseases or adapt to a changing climate.

Uses

Specimen tree or large shrub valued for its late summer flowers, good fall color and interesting history. Deserves a prominent location in the landscape. Used as a plant flowers.