The journey of the peach to Georgia is a story that began 2.47 million years ago in southwest China, where it started its slow, juicy trip around the world. In the mid-1500s Spanish missionaries brought peach trees to Florida, and it wasn’t too much longer that peaches came to Georgia. The Standing Peachtree Settlement was also the name of the Muscogee village (located in modern-day Buckhead) that would eventually become the city of Atlanta. And although Georgia doesn’t actually produce that much of the national peach crop, the tree and its fruit are inextricably linked to the region.

Read William Thomas Okie’s article “The Fuzzy History of the Georgia Peach” in Smithsonian Magazine.

Squirrels are usually only discussed when trying to figure out how to remove them from your attic. But without them, who would our dogs chase? Who would entertain our children? And, ecologically speaking, who would bury millions of acorns and nuts and forget where they were, planting whole oak and hickory forests? It’s gotta be the squirrels. Without these tiny gardeners it’s not just the attics of Atlanta that would look different.

Consider “Humans Are Animals. Let’s Get Over It.: It’s astonishing how relentlessly Western philosophy has strained to prove we are not squirrels.” by Crispin Sartwell in the February 23, 2021 New York Times.

Butterflyweed is one of several milkweed species native to the Atlanta area. When it’s flowering, you can probably spot its bright orange blooms from your car - and they’re worth pulling over to the side of the road to examine up close. Milkweeds are the only plants that monarch butterflies will lay their eggs on, so look for some black, white, and yellow-striped caterpillars chowing on those leaves. And while calling many of our native flowers “weeds” might have made sense to colonizers or early farmers, milkweeds belong here and some are actually quite rare. Considering that monarch populations are declining each year, helping butterflyweed’s public image has never been more important.

Check out this press release from the Center for Biological Diversity on the decline of the monarchs.

This vine is probably the most infamous invasive plant there is. It first got its hold in America thanks to the 70 million plants the US government paid farmers to plant to fight erosion in 1935. It was Atlanta’s own Channing Cope who helped convince farmers to plant kudzu. However, the famous invader is not nearly as invasive as it appears, growing best on roadsides’ disturbed soils with ample sunlight and no grazing animals.

Check out Bill Finch’s article in the September 2015 issue of Smithsonian Magazine “The True Story of Kudzu, the Vine That Never Truly Ate the South.”

Thirty-one states share their state bird with another state, but not Georgia: we’re the only one that celebrates the Brown Thrasher. The thrasher’s brief run as an NHL team proves that the coolest teams in Atlanta are named after birds (we see you, Hawks and Falcons! Get with the program, Braves.). And just like the Thrashers moved to Canada to become the Winnipeg Jets, the Brown Thrasher may be pushed north and out of Georgia by climate change. We must not replace all our thrashers with jets!

Read Terry W. Johnson’s article on the Georgia Department of Natural Resources website about how to invite the Brown Thrasher to your backyard.

You’ve probably seen the word “Piedmont” a lot. But it’s more than just a catchy thing to name your hospitals and combination dry cleaner/florists; the Piedmont is the technical name for the region of the eastern US between the Appalachian mountains and the Atlantic coastal plain. Atlanta is smack dab in the middle of the Piedmont, and the dominant tree of the Piedmont south of the Potomac river is the loblolly pine! The loblolly might be so common to Atlantans that it’s become just background noise, like the word “Piedmont”; sometimes we can’t see the trees for the forest.

Check out LaQuesa Gaillard sharing some loblolly facts.

Fireflies (or lightning bugs, if you’re nasty) are some of the first bugs that excite us. It is not recommended that you capture them and rub their bioluminescent booty juice on the sidewalk, then watch the light slowly fade as you experience for the first time the crushing existential burden of mortality and guilt. Don’t do it! Instead, marvel at the fact that up to 95% of their lives are spent not as flying adults, but as larvae in leaf litter, voraciously eating any tiny creatures they can get their mandibles on.

You can help researchers collect information on the fireflies in your own backyard with the Atlanta Firefly Project!

Cope’s gray tree frogs are the most common tree frog in the Georgia Piedmont. One way you can tell you have a Cope’s gray tree frog is by peering at the bright yellow or orange coloration on the back of its thighs (which seems like a personal space invasion). Identifying exactly which species you’re facing off with in nature – whether it’s a tree frog, a flower, or a lichen - can be overwhelming. It might feel like trying to learn a new language, and just like learning a new language, you gotta start somewhere. Luckily, there are phone apps now that use fancy robots to help you identify all living things!

Listen to the pipes on these little buddies!

Just like monarch butterflies need milkweeds, zebra swallowtails need paw paw trees to lay their eggs on. This same kind of relationship plays out with many of our favorite (and least favorite, tbh) critters. Figuring out which plant will lead you to which caterpillar can be extremely rewarding. For instance, if you search a paw paw and find a zebra swallowtail caterpillar, you can tickle its head and it will rear up on its lil’ nubbins and briefly grow inflatable horns called osmeteria. Pokémon fans will recognize these horns on Caterpie the caterpillar. People who aren’t fans of Pokémon will just have to google it.

Check out this blog post from the Caterpillar Lab’s Liz Kautz all about osmeteria.

The rebound of the peregrine falcon is one of the greatest success stories for endangered species programs. And while there are plenty of charismatic creatures on endangered species lists, not all of them are as conventionally handsome as Freddie here. Some endangered creatures live so far from the beaten track of our daily lives that many of us wouldn’t even know we were in the presence of something threatened with extinction if we saw it. We love the Falcons/falcons! Also, we wish more sports teams would pick freshwater mussels as their mascots.

Look over the 63 federally endangered and threatened species that call Georgia home.

Like many institutions, zoos have evolved a lot over the years. Nowadays, many conduct groundbreaking research with the animals in their care that not only help us understand these species better, but also contribute to their preservation in the wild. Willie B. was a beloved member of the larger Atlanta community who inspired the hundreds of thousands of people who saw him to treat animals more kindly. Unfortunately, the mining of coltan, a component of our cell phones, threatens gorilla habitat. Fortunately, Zoo Atlanta has a cell phone recycling program that directly benefits wild gorillas.

Visit Zoo Atlanta’s cell phone recycling page.

Theropods are often depicted as antagonists in dinosaur media. This is probably because many of them were huge carnivores with teeth the size of bananas (like our good friend T. rex here). Over millions of years, theropods slowly evolved feathers and wings. They got smaller and smaller, their snouts turned into beaks, and many began flying. Eventually, an egg was laid by a bird that was not quite a chicken, but inside that egg there was a chicken, and its prey would still be as terrified of them as any triceratops might be of T. Rex. And then people found them to be delicious, especially with lemon pepper, and we loved them so much we erected beautiful monuments in their honor. And that is how dinosaurs evolved into the Big Chicken of Marietta, Georgia.

Read Emily Singer’s “How Dinosaurs Shrank and Became Birds” in the June 2, 2015 issue of Quanta Magazine.

You won't find a lot of pet graves in human cemeteries, and this one definitely raises more questions than it answers. Oakland Cemetery is home to so many stories written in bones. And the bones of Tweet the Mockingbird are some of its tiniest. Tweet’s grave marker, a lamb, says “‘TWEET’ A MOCKING BIRD Jan. 24 1874.” Who was Tweet? Was Tweet as happy as mockingbirds get? Did Tweet do that thing mockingbirds do where they just yell all day in the voices of other birds? Is the name “Tweet” a joke because Tweet never shut up? Are Tweet’s bones long-returned to soil? Did Tweet’s body nourish the plants that grow up around Tweet’s lamb?

For a place full of dead people, there’s a lot going on here.

Humans are a species too! It’s true. There’s a narrative in the environmentalist world that basically implies that humans are only good at destruction and everything we touch turns to poop. And while there’s seductive truth to that, it’s also always being said by a human! To another human! Both of whom are trying to make the world less poopy! Unscientifically speaking, it seems like the end of the world would have happened a long time ago without all the people trying to do good, fighting dominant forces and getting messy, thankless victories. People rallying for the Earth Goddess. People like you!

Learn more about the Earth Goddess living sculpture at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens.

Prescribed fire is an important part of taking care of ecosystems. It seems counterintuitive, but often the most loving thing we can do for our wild areas is to set them on fire. I mean, not you per se, but certified professionals. Fires were a natural part of many landscapes in the time before Europeans got here. And now if we don’t burn thoughtfully, many natural processes are altered and disrupted. Fire destroys, but sometimes great things grow out of the ashes it leaves.

The Georgia Prescribed Fire Council tells us exactly why thoughtfully burning things is important for nature.

Dogs have evolved alongside humans for millennia and they have helped us the whole way, so they deserve as much outdoor time as they can get. And yes, dogs like being off-leash, but if you’re in a wild area then an off-leash dog can really terrorize wildlife. Unless your pup has the self-control of darling Spike here, it’s probably best that you not give your doggo free reign of the natural world. Look at him NOT chasing those geese! Such a good boy.

Read more about Spike and his training to become a service dog to veterans through America’s VetDogs. Thanks, Atlanta United!

If you are able to look at a cotton plant without the weight of any of its history, you might be struck by its cloudy charm. But the illusion of clouds falls away as soon as you grasp it and your hand doesn’t pass right through. This tiny fluff is heavier than its weight. The pressures of profit ruined millions of black lives as enslaved people were stolen and forced to harvest this innocuous poof. That history is part of us too. How horrible that history. How wonderful its survivors.

Read Craig McClain’s piece “How presidential elections are impacted by a 100 million year old coastline” on a June 27, 2012 blog post for Deep Sea News.

The plant that cabbage was created from, the wild mustard known as Brassica oleracea, is actually the same plant that many other vegetable crops come from. Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, kale, and kohlrabi also come from B. oleracea, as the farmers long ago who created these plants were just selecting plant babies for different traits. So despite looking pretty different from each other, they all have the same, relatively recent ancestor. Another thing they all have in common? Toots. They make many, many toots.

Check out this historic neighborhood’s official website.

Like cabbage and its siblings, corn is another plant that has been altered so much from its original form that it’s difficult to see the resemblance. Also, it was one of the “three sisters” native American crops, along with beans and squash. The three plants grow well together as the corn, a grass, is stiff and upright, the beans vine around and climb the corn stalks and the squash carpet and cool the soil. Also the beans, like all legumes, have a nifty trick where they help add nitrogen to the soil by taking it from the AIR. Nitrogen is a very important component to plant growth. Sisterhood is powerful.

Native Seeds/SEARCH has this great run down of a three sisters garden.

Congrats to the sole fungus on the Atlanta 40! Of course, it’s named after part of an animal because sometimes we have a hard time coming up with original names for things so we just call them things we already know pretty well. Which is fine, and in this case, it would be great to see an entire lion made of fungi. Stalking the mushroom savanna for morel-gazelles, lounging in the shade of a solitary chanterelle, the cremini cubs playing spraggle upon waggle with their umami mommy lion fungus.

Hey, did you know fungi are more closely related to animals than plants?

A common vine of the Southeast, the muscadine grape has fed people for centuries. And although it has a thicker skin than its other grapey cousins, that probably just means it isn’t personally offended that it’s not as popular at the market. It’s not offended. Because it has thick skin... Oh! And not only does the fruit feed people and other animals, but also the leaves are the host food for the caterpillars of at least two enchanting moths: the nessus sphinx moth and the mournful sphinx moth.

See this guide to muscadine wine where the “primary flavors” are listed as “Ripe Banana, Bruised Apple, Lime Peel, Cranberry, Rubber Cement.” Uhhh… Okay!

Azaleas are ubiquitous in gardens and landscaping, but there’s something different about coming upon a wild one blooming in the woods. And this one in particular has evolved over centuries to be at home among the Piedmont’s unique geology, climate, flora, fauna, and people. Being in an ecosystem that has avoided degradation from development and invasive species, in a state that has been sculpted for millennia, is an enchanted and increasingly rare experience. But if we all figure out how to better become a part of our ecosystems and not in opposition to them, then some of what has been lost can return, and some of what we have won’t be lost. So thanks for being here!

Here’s a write-up from the Georgia Native Plant Society.

Isn’t Paul Milliken just so naturally charming? Salamanders need more PR from folks like Paul. The Southeast is actually the region of the world with the highest salamander species diversity. The world! But unless you make it a point to lift up logs, these slimy sweeties probably aren’t a part of your everyday life. It’s hard to get to know someone when they breathe through their skin and don’t even have a cell phone.

The Amphibian Foundation has this write-up on the spotted salamander and is working to help it out!

Georgia is home to 8 of North America’s 11 pitcher plant species, and all of them are listed as endangered, threatened, unusual or special concern with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. One cause for concern is poaching. Yes, poaching! It’s understandable that you would want to have for your very own a personal Sarlacc Pit. But don’t do it! Think of it like this: you love your friends, you’re protective of them, but that doesn’t mean you would pick them up and make them live in your garden. They too would wilt and suffer and you would be universally shunned by your community. Also, pitcher plants flower before their pitchers open so they don’t accidentally eat their pollinators. Smart!

The Atlanta Botanical Garden has a conservation garden where they grow rare plants from the Southeast (including pitcher plants) in order to restore bog habitats.

Screech owls are hard to see, not just because they’re silent night flyers, but because they’re extremely well-camouflaged and also quite wee! But that excellent rendition of their call that Jordan does in this video is probably the easiest way that you will get to experience them. So if you hear that spooky whinny at night, you can be less scared because it’s just a darling little owl. Or it’s Jordan, who is equally harmless to humans.

Local comics artist Andy Runton writes books for all ages about Owly, an Eastern Screech Owl, who has gentle interactions with other animals native to Atlanta.

Maybe you think that snapping turtles have a face that only their mothers could love. Not true, since snapping turtle mothers just lay their eggs in a sandy hole and shuffle away from their babies forever. Which is a shame because have you seen a snapping turtle baby? Even if you have, google it now. We’ll wait… I KNOW RIGHT!? Scientists have long tried to quantify the cuteness of baby snapping turtles but their results vary wildly between “so adorable [we] need a nap” and “cuter than any baby I have, or could ever, make.” Good gracious.

A nice overview of the snapper on Chattahoochee Riverkeeper.

Close your eyes. Now picture the first… oh wait, you can’t read this if your eyes are closed. Okay open them but have, like, the MOOD of having your eyes closed. Search your memory for some of the first times you encountered roly polies. A kid’s job is to play and make wonder out of thin air. Maybe it was the cracks of the sidewalk in front of your house, or your grandparents’ garage, or idle time at a park. Regardless, what are the things you remember about doing nothing? How can you schedule more nothing in your life now? What might you discover?

What has to be the most gorgeous documentary footage of roly polies from The Kid Should See This.

The Georgia Department of Natural Resources is taking volunteers for their Georgia's Anabat Acoustic Survey Volunteer Project.

Often in discussions of less glamorous fauna, we focus on what their ecosystem role is. No one cares if a panda has an ecosystem role, we just want to see them roll around and torment the people trying to clean their enclosure. For decomposers, usually there’s some version of the statement, “without them, we would be forever wading through oceans of feces and corpses.” It’s a useful hypothetical, but also totally bonkers. Anyway, the adult black soldier fly actually has no mouth, cannot bite or sting, transmits no disease, and only has one thing on its mind. It’s the larvae that are incredibly powerful processors of our decaying matter and Atlanta would not be the same without them. We might not be lost in poop and cadavers, but we would still be lost without black soldier flies. The Lost City of Pooplanta.

Absolutely mesmerizing video of what black soldier fly larvae can do to two big fish corpses in a day. Make sure to watch it with someone you love! While eating!

Few creatures are hated more than snakes. Perhaps it’s the book of Genesis’ fault, or maybe it goes further back, deep in our lizard brains. Just look at what cats do when confronted with unexpected cucumbers. And there’s a reason they didn’t make a movie called Hamsters on a Plane, or instead of Anaconda it was Capybara. It’s gotta be snakes. And while there are common-sense things you can do to avoid venomous snakes, if you get to see the non-venomous eastern king snake, then the worst thing that could happen is you fall in love.

Read the work Urban Kings is doing to help document our gentle serpent friends.

Much like the X-Men superhero Iceman, snails and slugs slide their way through the landscape. But instead of careening forth on a river of ice, these mollusks scoot at the pace of a minute hand on a teensy trickle of mucous. And Atlanta’s own changeable mantleslugs are equally heroic. How? Mostly as a food source to other animals and helping decompose plant matter. You have to admit though, for slugs, this one is a real looker.

Read this short piece in Science Focus Magazine by Luis Villazon entitled “What’s the point of slugs?”

Welcome to the granite outcrop portion of the Atlanta 40 - you’ve come so far! Therefore, we think you’re ready to really get into what is unique about the region’s wild areas. Granite outcrops of the southern Piedmont are delicate, bizarre, and one of a kind. If you wanted to film a movie about an alien world, with tiny aliens, then the miniature ecosystems that form around the water that pools in the rock are for you! Case-in-point, elf orpine - from April to June you can see millions of these globular red succulent plants carpet the granite recesses. The awe-inspiring display is made all the more special because it’s so brief.

Here’s the google image search of it. Just scroll and bask.

The Georgia oak is one of the rarer oak species there is. It was first found at Stone Mountain, perhaps the most popular place to see granite outcrop plant communities - and whose name you’ll find in the next two species of the Atlanta 40. One way we chose the species for this project is if they are very common and a part of Atlantans’ everyday lives. But another is to acknowledge species that are from no where else on Earth. This is the natural heritage of Atlanta. Brim with pride! Brim!

Here’s Global Trees’ profile of the oak - they really emphasize how damaging it is for this and other endangered species when you go off the trails.

Last seen in 1940, this is the most elusive member of the Atlanta 40. Fairy shrimp are hard enough to see when they haven’t been missing for 80 years. The other shrimp species you can see in the granite pools are probably not a part of your daily routine either. The stone mountain fairy shrimp is a translucent ghost, so that even if you’re looking right at it you might look right through it. It may still be there, somewhere. Don’t go looking for it. It’ll show itself when it’s ready. In the meantime, let’s protect these pools in stone so there’s always a home for the tiny fairies to return to.

A Young Naturalist discusses these long lost sea monkeys.

There are some steps moving forward, and in geologic time, they’re not slow steps either.

Here is a great story map about the history of Indiana limestone from the Indiana Geological Survey.

Have you ever lost your keys? Have you ever lost your keys for 122 years? Are your keys the robust redhorse and are you science? In 1870 the robust redhorse was documented for the first time and then the specimen disappeared and the species wasn’t seen again until 1991 (by biologists anyway. I’m sure people saw them sometimes and were like “that’s a pretty fish, I wonder what it’s called?” and then went back to watching China Beach or whatever people did in 1991). This is a remarkable span of time and considering how many species go away forever, unnoticed and forgotten, it’s nice to see people who saved something before it was too late.

Learn more about the incredible effort to save this fish from the Robust Redhorse Conservation Committee.

One doesn’t hear too much about prairies outside of the Midwest, but grasslands also call Georgia home. And just like any ecosystem, there are species that thrive in only those places. And lo, we have the Georgia aster. You’d be lucky to see one but also the work being done to restore it will benefit all of Georgia’s prairie species. The Elaine Nash prairie is close to Atlanta if you would like to see what a southern grassland is all about.

Check out the work of the Piedmont Prairie Partnership.

Probably at this point in the Atlanta 40 you’re feeling like this is all a little TOO sciencey. Presented by Science ATL and all, we could see where you would get that impression. But MAINSTREAM science won’t tell you about things like Altamaha-ha. Often described as a gigantic fish lizard, someone who is less fun might suggest that people are just seeing a sturgeon or a wayward shark or an alligator gar. But is it necessary to ruin everyone’s fun all the time?

Read “The South’s Own Loch Ness Monster?” by Jason Frye in the April 23, 2018 issue of Garden & Gun. Also, this is the prettiest publication you’ll see stories about Altie - usually these websites look a lot more GeoCities-esque.

Look, we’ve altered this planet in ways that cannot be undone and there’s a million tragedies big and small that we take turns mourning. The American chestnut is one of the big tragedies. There’s no justice for this loss. No court or fine or penitence for the fungus that kills these trees so effectively. Atlanta is on the very edge of the traditional range of the chestnut, but the young blight-resistant trees growing here are living hope, gifts to the future, a postcard we are writing to our kids that says, “no matter the loss, there’s always something you can do about it.” Sometimes the thing to do is plant a tree.

Read all about the American chestnut orchard at the Atlanta History Center.