Photo: Scott Zona, CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Littleleaf Buckbrush

Ceanothus microphyllus

Also called littleleaf whitethorn, sandflat ceanothus, littleleaf New Jersey tea, small-leaf redroot.

A foot-high cousin of New Jersey tea for dry, sandy pinelands of the Deep South, with leaves under half an inch and white flower clusters in spring.

Drought tolerantNitrogen fixing

Type: Shrub
Mature height: 1–2 ft
USDA zones: 8–10
Growth rate: Slow
Sun: Full, Part
Soil moisture: Dry
Grows wild in: Sandy barrens and dry uplands
Native range: Alabama, Florida and Georgia See what is native in your state

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Littleleaf buckbrush is a small shrub of the buckthorn family and a close relative of our New Jersey tea. It grows on sandy flats, scrub oak sandhills and old dunes, and in open pine and oak woods, in south Alabama, south Georgia and much of Florida. Its wiry stems carry tiny leaves, often in bundles, and small round clusters of white flowers. Where the two grow together it can cross with New Jersey tea. Set it at the front of a dry, sunny bed of sandhill plants, where its small size and fine leaves can be seen.

Size, growth and what to expect

No source rates its growth, so our growth estimator treats it as a slow grower, like our New Jersey tea, about a foot a year. It makes a low, rounded shrub 1 to 2 feet tall and 2 to 3 feet wide, on wiry stems of green or reddish green. Its leaves are a tenth to two fifths of an inch long, often bundled on short shoots.

Small clusters of white flowers open from March to June, their sepals, petals and nectar disk all white. Small lobed capsules follow.

It grows wild from south Alabama and south Georgia through Florida, south to Highlands County, in longleaf pine woods, scrub oak sandhills, sandy flats and old dunes. NatureServe ranks it vulnerable in Alabama and Georgia.

How to grow Littleleaf Buckbrush

Littleleaf buckbrush grows in full sun or the light shade of open pines and oaks. It wants deep, dry sand that drains fast, like the sandhills and dunes it grows on. Set plants 2 feet apart and keep them 2 feet from a wall. At its size it can go within 15 feet of overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them dormant, from leaf fall until bud swell, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the crown at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and add no fertilizer. Sow it as New Jersey tea is sown. Pour water heated to 180 to 200 degrees over the seed and soak it for 24 hours as the water cools. Then hold it in damp sand in the refrigerator for 60 to 90 days.

Water weekly through the first summer if rain is short. It needs no pruning.

Each flower carries both male and female parts, so there are no male and female plants to pair. All ceanothus are thought to fix nitrogen with the help of bacteria in their roots, which suits it to poor sand.

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

Sources (8)

Plan the planting