Flora of North America species comparison

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Ceanothus herbaceus

céanothe á feuilles étroites, inland Jersey tea, Jersey tea, New Jersey tea, prairie redroot
Habit Shrubs, deciduous, 0.6–1 m. Stems erect to ascending, not rooting at nodes; branchlets green, brown, or reddish, not thorn-tipped, round in cross section, flexible, ± appressed-puberulent or villosulous, glabrescent.
Leaves

petiole 2–6(–10) mm;

blade not aromatic, flat, usually elliptic to lanceolate, sometimes ovate or oblanceolate, (20–)25–70 × 10–30 mm, herbaceous, not resinous, base cuneate to rounded, margins serrate to serrulate, teeth (37–)45–71, apex acute to obtuse, abaxial surface pale green, glabrous or puberulent, especially on veins, adaxial surface dark green, dull, villosulous or glabrate; 3-veined from base.
Inflorescences

terminal, umbel-like, globose to hemispheric, 4–8 cm.
Flowers

sepals, petals, and nectary white.
Capsules

3–5 mm wide, lobed;

valves smooth, usually not crested, sometimes weakly crested near apex.

Ceanothus herbaceus
Phenology Flowering Mar–Aug.
Habitat Open rocky areas or on sandy soils, slopes and bluffs in shrublands, prairies, forests.
Elevation 10–1800 m. (0–5900 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
AR; CO; IA; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MA; MI; MN; MO; MT; ND; NE; NH; NM; NY; OH; OK; SD; TN; TX; VA; VT; WI; WY; MB; ON; QC; Mexico (Coahuila)
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[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Ceanothus herbaceus is an older name than C. ovatus, which has been used widely in botanical and horticultural literature (G. K. Brizicky 1964c). Plants with persistently puberulent leaves occur principally east of the Mississippi River Valley and have been called var. pubescens, but the extent of intergradation occurs over a broad geographic area and deserves further study (N. C. Coile 1988). Putative hybrids between C. herbaceus and C. fendleri in the eastern foothills of the Rocky Mountains were named C. ×subsericeus Rydberg.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 12, p. 82.
Parent taxa Rhamnaceae > Ceanothus > subg. Ceanothus
Sibling taxa
C. americanus, C. arboreus, C. arcuatus, C. confusus, C. cordulatus, C. crassifolius, C. cuneatus, C. cyaneus, C. dentatus, C. divergens, C. diversifolius, C. fendleri, C. ferrisiae, C. foliosus, C. fresnensis, C. gloriosus, C. griseus, C. hearstiorum, C. impressus, C. incanus, C. integerrimus, C. jepsonii, C. lemmonii, C. leucodermis, C. maritimus, C. martini, C. masonii, C. megacarpus, C. microphyllus, C. oliganthus, C. ophiochilus, C. otayensis, C. palmeri, C. papillosus, C. parryi, C. parvifolius, C. pauciflorus, C. perplexans, C. pinetorum, C. prostratus, C. pumilus, C. purpureus, C. roderickii, C. sanguineus, C. sonomensis, C. spinosus, C. thyrsiflorus, C. tomentosus, C. velutinus, C. verrucosus
Synonyms C. herbaceus var. pubescens, C. ovatus, C. ovatus var. pubescens
Name authority Rafinesque: Med. Repos., hexade 2, 5: 360. (1808)
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Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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