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Article: Looking for Georgia's lost Franklinia: could he find this small, showy tree not seen in the wild for more than 200 years?(Franklinia alatamaha)
- Article from:
- American Forests
- Article date:
- January 1, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2008 American Forests. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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In the muggy midday heat of southeastern Georgia, my body begs me to heed the wisdom of birds and beasts whose activity punctuates the cooler hours of the day. But I have only one day to find the treasure I seek. So I wipe my brow, wave off a few mosquitoes, and continue my search for beauty, rarity, and the arboreal discovery of the century.
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I walk on sandy soil, through an understory of palmetto beneath a canopy of live oak, loblolly pine, river birch, sweetgum, and baldcypress until I reach the Altamaha River. Here my path crosses that of John Bartram who was on a very similar quest with his son William in 1765. There are a ...