Yellow-Bellied Slider Trachemys scripta scripta As the springtime weather moves in, you’re likely to see more native wildlife emerge from their winter slumber. Georgia is home to 27 types of turtles, and one of the most abundant turtles is the yellow-bellied slider. This semiaquatic turtle species lives in freshwater lakes,...

By Abigail Quin Hricik, The Sweet Gum Trail is a wonderful ecological resource on the MAS’ campus. It is teeming with life just waiting to be explored! The plants along the trail are managed and identified by the local Master Gardeners. Some of the species you can observe include the...

The tiny Trout Lilly is one of Georgia’s many unique native plant species.   As temperatures begin to warm and spring approaches, the first of the woodland plants begin to peek above the leaf litter. One of the first to emerge is the spring-ephemeral (short-lived) Trout Lily (Erythronium americanum). Trout...

Spring has recently arrived in Georgia, and native plants are sprouting up in the woodlands across the state. The Mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum) is a unique plant that grows as large dense mats in open woods, often near a water source such as a river, creek, or swampy bottomland. The Mayapple...