The story begins with Eugene Allen Smith, longtime state geologist. During
his summer field trips to document and describe Alabama's geological features, Smith also collected plants of interest. In July 1877, he clipped a branch from an odd-looking shrub growing on the limestone bluffs at Pratt's Ferry near Centreville; he later passed the specimen on to Charles Mohr, a Mobile pharmacist and botanist. Mohr was likewise puzzled and sent the specimen to the reigning authority on Southern plants, Alvan Wentworth Chapman of Apalachicola, who formally named the plant in the second edition of his Flora of the Southern States. Thus it was through the combined efforts of Smith, Mohr, and Chapman that Croton alabamensis came to scientific light.