USA 2025
In August 2025 Gothenburg Botanical Garden’s Scientific Curator Kent Kainulainen and Gardener Simon Ågren travelled to USA to collect plants in Georgia and North Carolina.
We planned this trip together with Scott McMahan and Tim Marchlik from Atlanta Botanical Garden, and we were particularly interested in exploring the rich flora of the Blue Ridge Mountains. However, our first destination was Sprewell Bluff, where the Flint River – one of the few unimpeded rivers in the country – meanders through forested ravines in the Piedmont of western Georgia. In Sprewell Bluff Park we found a great variety of plants. Some of the highlights included sand hickory (Carya pallida), southern catalpa (Catalpa bignonioides), and the impressive longleaf pine (Pinus palustris).
Traveling north we then visited several sites in the Blue Ridge Mountains, both in Georgia and North Carolina. With great help from local plantsman Jack Johnston, we were soon admiring large trees of Magnolia acuminata and Magnolia fraseri among many other plants. In Chattahoochee National Forest we found the shrub buffalo nut (Pyrularia pubera), which is unusual in being a woody hemiparasite. Other interesting finds included the cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis), and the cut-leaved grape-fern (Sceptridium dissectum).
Thanks to our helpful local colleagues and contacts we had a very successful trip. Hopefully the species that we collected will be on display in Botaniska in the future.
