Species
+

Ceanothus americanus L.

Jersey Tea, Jersey-tea ceanothus, New Jersey tea, New Jersey tea

Climate known 94 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Ceanothus americanus is a species of Ceanothus shrub native to North America. Common names include New Jersey tea, Jersey tea ceanothus, variations of red root, mountain sweet, and wild snowball. New Jersey tea was a name coined during the American Revolution, because its leaves were used as a substitute for imported tea.

Text from Wikipedia, “Ceanothus americanus”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Ceanothus

Ceanothus is a genus of about 50–60 species of nitrogen-fixing shrubs and small trees in the buckthorn family (Rhamnaceae). Common names for members of this genus are buckbrush, California lilac, soap bush, or just ceanothus. The genus is native to North America, ranging from Canada and the United States south through Mexico to Panama, with the center of diversity in the California floristic province of the western United States and Mexico, where around ~42 species are endemic out of the roughly ~58 species in the genus. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Ceanothus”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Rhamnaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Ontario, Québec, Illinois +35
Wild records
1637 in range· 477 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Jul, mean day; nights 19 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1134mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jun 113 mm (CHELSA)
Light
11–40DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (March to September and November in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 1134 mm a year, wettest June at 113 mm, driest February at 72 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 11 to 40 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -16.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Ceanothus americanus var. americanus; Ceanothus americanus var. glaber Alph.Wood; Ceanothus americanus var. intermedius (Pursh) K.Koch; Ceanothus americanus var. intermedius (Pursh) Torr. & A.Gray; Ceanothus americanus var. pitcheri Torr. & A.Gray and 28 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (March to September and November in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (812 mm of 1134 mm) takes 8 months, March to September and November. Mean temperature moves 25.2 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: September to March and May.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1134 mm a year, wettest June at 113 mm, driest February at 72 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1134 mm a year at the habitat, 812 mm of it March to September and November. Wettest month June at 113 mm, driest February at 72 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 869 mm to 1453 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 11 to 40 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 11 to 40 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 9, the highest 90th-percentile month 41).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -16.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -16.0 °C, the absolute minimum -32.3 °C, about 132 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 34.3 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -6.0 °C in January (across the envelope cells -12.1 °C to 1.6 °C), warmest day 28.1 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -16.0 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 56 to 59% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 2 °C in Jan to 28 °C in Jul; mean night from -6 °C in Jan to 19 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1134 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 1144 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -32.3 °C and the 99th-percentile day 34.3 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-40°-20°20°40°frost34.3° 99th-percentile day (undated)-32.3° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 11–40RH 56–59 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 1144 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C2 / -3–114 / -1–1310 / 5–1816 / 12–2321 / 18–2726 / 23–3028 / 26–3227 / 25–3223 / 21–2817 / 14–2311 / 6–174 / -1–12
Night °C-6 / -12–2-5 / -10–3-1 / -5–75 / 2–1211 / 8–1616 / 14–2119 / 17–2318 / 16–2214 / 12–198 / 6–133 / -1–8-3 / -8–3
Rain mm76 / 28–12872 / 32–13692 / 49–13497 / 74–123108 / 86–142113 / 91–138111 / 88–137103 / 82–12398 / 84–12089 / 69–11790 / 57–12385 / 38–137
DLI13 / 11–1719 / 17–2226 / 25–2933 / 31–3637 / 36–3940 / 38–4139 / 38–4134 / 33–3728 / 26–3121 / 17–2514 / 11–1811 / 9–15
RH %59 / 57–6458 / 56–6256 / 55–5856 / 54–5757 / 55–5958 / 57–6159 / 57–6159 / 58–6159 / 57–6158 / 56–6059 / 57–6159 / 57–64

Each figure is the median across the 1144 grid cells holding the 1477 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 987:1999 (40.625, -80.025). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -32.3 °C, 1st-percentile night -16.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 34.3 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 1144 distinct grid cells holding the 1477 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 987:1999 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 40.50_-80.000, lapse-corrected +29 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 361 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeOntario, Québec, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., Vermont, West Virginia, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, District of Columbia
Kew's description“subshrub or shrub” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker42.303, -72.509 · in the densest population, 705 records (43% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1637 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 477 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 360 km away. 9 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 160 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 1637 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Ceanothus americanusCeanothus americanusCeanothus americanusCeanothus americanusCeanothus americanusCeanothus americanusCeanothus americanusCeanothus americanus

Photographs: (c) Douglas Goldman, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (8).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Ceanothus americanus, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Antimicrobial compounds from Ceanothus americanus against oral pathogens
Xing-Cong Li, Linin Cai, Christine D. Wu (1997) · Phytochemistry
Hemoglobins in the nitrogen-fixing root nodules of actinorhizal plants
John D. Tjepkema (1983) · Canadian Journal of Botany
Diversity of Frankia Strains in Root Nodules of Plants from the Families Elaeagnaceae and Rhamnaceae
Michael L. Clawson, Margarita Carú, David R. Benson (1998) · Applied and Environmental Microbiology
Notes on Wisconsin Parasitic Fungi. XV.
H. C. Greene (1952) · The American Midland Naturalist
A Widely Distributed Biosynthetic Cassette Is Responsible for Diverse Plant Side Chain Cross‐Linked Cyclopeptides**
Stella T. Lima, Brigitte G. Ampolini, Ethan B. Underwood, Tyler N. Graf (2022) · Angewandte Chemie International Edition
Ceanothus alkaloids. II. Peptide alkaloids from Ceanothus americanus
Robert E. Servis, Alvin I. Kosak, Rudolf Tschesche, E. Frohberg (1969) · Journal of the American Chemical Society
CEANOTHUS ALKALOIDS: I. ISOLATION, SEPARATION, AND CHARACTERIZATION
E. W. Warnhoff, Saroj Kumar Pradhan, J. C. N. (1965) · Canadian Journal of Chemistry
Phylogenetic placement of unculturedCeanothusmicrosymbionts using 16S rRNA gene sequences
Nancy J. Ritchie, David D. Myrold (1999) · Canadian Journal of Botany
Accumulation of tetrapeptide precursors of macrocyclic alkaloids by callus of Ceanothus americanus
Mizra A. Baig, D. V. Banthorpe, Alan A. Coleman, Maureen D. Tampion (1993) · Phytochemistry

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Ceanothus 3 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 101 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.