efflorescence annual and perennial bring a landscape alive with color , but you ’ll really chance up the wow factor if you plant a flowering tree diagram . And if you set a native anthesis tree , you ’ll score a two - for - one benefit by invite native wildlife specie to your thou . Native butterfly , bee , beneficial insects , birds and other pollinator are of course draw to native plant species . Some native insect species deplete only the native plants they ’ve develop together with and adapted to throughout many thousands of eld .
What Is a Native Tree?
There are some 4,000 native plant coinage in North Carolina , of which approximately 220 species are tree .
Just because a certain Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree is growing in your railway yard does n’t mean that it ’s native to your region , or even native to North America . Even though many tree species are adapted to other countries and climates , their place of origin may be midway around the globe .
A perfect example in North Carolina is the crepe Vinca minor tree ( Lagerstroemia indica , USDA hardiness zones 6 to 9 ) , which North Carolina residents may think is a aboriginal tree because it ’s practically a landscape staple fibre throughout the body politic . But this beautiful tree that ’s extend with flowers in summertime hails from Asia in commonwealth that include China and Japan .

How Botanists Define Native Plants
There ’s no remarkable definition of a " native plant , " but the most usual statement of botanic experts include :
origins in a location where they naturally occur without human intervention / introduction .
the continent must pre - date European settlement .
What Is a Flowering Tree?
When considering a efflorescence tree for your yard , your thoughts likely go to Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree that bear showy flowers . But trees classify as angiosperms produce flowers , unless they ’ve been breed as non - uninspired cultivars , even though some tree blossoms are so tiny that you ’ll in all likelihood never detect them .
Although paperbark maple ( Acer griseum , USDA zones 4 to 8) is a flowering tree , its decorative value is in its shaggy , exfoliating barque rather of its tiny yellow flowers , which are not easy seen . ( Gymnosperms , or nonflowering plants , include trees that give rise spore - bearing cone cell instead of flowers . )
Some tree specie have separate male and female flowers on the same plant life ; other tree species have manful and distaff parts in each prime ; and many tree coinage bear manful and female flowers on freestanding plant . Botany lesson away , there are many North Carolina aboriginal trees with showy blossom to prune up your yard .
Most have pinkish , purple or bloodless blooms , and some blossom in early spring , late bound or early summertime , while some do n’t bloom till late summer . Some are prise for their heyday , while some have unremarkable salad days but sport beautiful twilight foliage to provide a pop of descent color .
Native Flowering Trees in North Carolina by Height
Consider the matured height of a tree before take one for your yard , and count overhead to make certain that its height will not step in with power railway line .
This list by height grouping tree species by their potentialmaximummature tallness , although their height range of mountains is also given . Many pocket-sized trees may also be called large shrubs , although shrubs generally are involve as have a mature summit of less than 12 feet .