New Jersey Tea is a fairly common small shrub usually found in colonies on dry, sunny slopes.
The leaves are distinctively ribbed with three prominent veins.
Flowers about to open.
Granville Co., NC 5/16/09.
Plantae>Magnoliophyta>Magnoliopsida>Rhamnales>Rhamnaceae>Ceanothus americanus L.
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| New Jersey Tea is a fairly common small shrub usually found in colonies on dry, sunny slopes. The leaves are distinctively ribbed with three prominent veins. Flowers about to open. Granville Co., NC 5/16/09. |
 | The white flowers in late spring are attractive to bees and butterflies. This photo shows a Silver-spotted Skipper) nectaring. New Jersey Tea is also the host plant for larvae of the Mottled Duskywing (Erynnis martialis), a butterfly. Blue Ridge Parkway, Carroll Co., Virginia 6/30/2002. |
| The flowers grow in tightly clustered panicles. Carroll Co., VA 7/3/06. |
| Detail of a single flower. Carroll Co., VA 7/3/06. |
More information:
Virginia Tech Dendrology
All photographs and text ©2009 by Will Cook unless otherwise indicated.