Franklinia alatamaha (Franklin Tree)
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Type: Deciduous tree
Hardiness Zone: 5-8
Sunlight: Full sun to part shade
Soil Moisture: Well drained
Soil pH: Acid to neutral
Flowering: Late Summer through Fall
Flowers: White with yellow/orange stamen
Leaves: Red to burgundy fall color
Height: 10 to 20 feet
Stems 1(-5); bark thin, smooth. Leaves deciduous; petiole indistinct from blade, usually winged, wings 1 mm wide; blade obovate to obtrullate, chartaceous, base long-tapering, margins serrate usually to below middle, apex acute, veins conspicuous, 10-12 pairs, midrib elevated abaxially , depressed slightly adaxially. Inflorescence bracts deciduous, 2, inserted immediately proximal to sepals. Pedicels terete, 0.2-1.5(-4) cm. Flowers 7-10 cm diam.; sepals deciduous, connate proximally, concave, thickened proximally, margins ciliate, apex rounded, sericeous; petals 5, connate proximally, creamy white, unequal, base constricted, margins crenulate, outermost petal incurved, abaxial surface densely hairy; stamens 75-150, distinct or connate 1-2 mm proximally; pistil 5-carpellate; ovules 6-8(-12) per locule; styles 1; stigmas 5-lobed. Capsules brown, subglobose, base rounded, apex round, dehiscence loculicidal from apex and septicidal from base; columella persistent, adnate to valves at middle. Seeds 6-8(-12) per locule, brown, reniform, asymmetric, rough, apical wing relatively narrow or absent. x = 18.
GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION
Extinct in the wild, formerly seen in Georgia.
Description from eFloras (2008). Published on the Internet http://www.efloras.org [accessed 18 November 2015]’ Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO & Harvard University Herbaria, Cambridge, MA.