Sprouting in woody plant species allows for the long-term persistence of small isolated populations experiencing changing environments and can preserve genetic diversity in these populations despite the infrequent recruitment of sexually produced individuals.  We examined demographic data collected over a 10-year period for Tilia americana var. caroliniana in the context of genetic data as an empirical case study of this concept. Two back-barrier islands on the Georgia USA coast were completely censused for Tilia americana var. caroliniana. Recruitment, growth, and mortality of all stems were tracked over a 10-year period. All genets were genotyped using eight nuclear microsatellite loci to assess population genetic structure among sampled stems, as well as among populations in the region.