Research Projects:
UGA COASTAL PLAIN EXPERIMENT STATION
The University of Georgia Coastal Plain Experiment Station is developing a site on the Tifton Campus as an arboretum. The Coastal Plain Research Arboretum was started in 1987 and will be unique in the southeast in that it is located on the grounds of an experiment station and is devoted to native trees and shrubs of a well-defined physiogeographic region, the Coastal Plain of Georgia. The Arboretum provides a living resource for the purpose of research, education, and recreation among the native plant species of the Georgia Coastal Plain. The collection includes approximately 280 different taxa of trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants. Native plant communities are also being planted on the grounds of the National Environmentally Sound Production Agriculture Laboratory (NESPAL).
Research with native species includes the breeding, selection, and evaluation of new cultivars for the nursery and landscape industries, work on nursery production protocols for Elliottia racemosa, evaluation of Torreya taxifolia clones for horticultural characteristics, development of Ulmus alata, winged elm, as a cut branch crop for the floral industry, and cooperative work on the re-establishment of wiregrass in Longleaf Pine forests.