It isn’t much to look at: short, stubby, and somewhat difficult to grow.

But this little tree is a survivor.

When glaciers covered most of the continent during the last Ice Age, a few of these trees survived in sheltered micro-habitats along the continent’s southeast coast.

In 1765, King George III’s Royal Botanist and his son discovered them growing along the banks of the Altamaha River in Georgia.

These men had traveled extensively throughout the Colonies documenting native plant life and they had never seen this tree growing anywhere else.

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