Photo: Joshua Mayer, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Prairie Redroot

Ceanothus herbaceus

Also called inland New Jersey tea, narrow-leaved New Jersey tea, inland ceanothus, smaller redroot.

A knee-high prairie shrub for dry, limy ground, with round clusters of white flowers in spring that feed bees and butterflies, and roots that fix nitrogen.

Showy flowersWildlife valueDrought tolerantNitrogen fixing

Type: Shrub
Mature height: 2–3 ft
USDA zones: 4–8
Growth rate: Slow
Sun: Full, Part
Soil moisture: Dry, Average
Grows wild in: Rocky ground, dry uplands, sandy barrens, old fields and edges
Native range: 27 states and the District of Columbia, north to North Dakota, south to Louisiana and west to Montana
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Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming and the District of Columbia
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Prairie redroot is a small shrub of the buckthorn family and the inland cousin of our New Jersey tea, with narrower leaves and a taste for drier, limier ground. Bacteria in its roots fix nitrogen, so it thrives on poor, rocky soil. Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, New York, Ohio and Vermont list it as endangered. Grow it in a rock garden, a gravel bed or on a dry, sunny bank where little else will grow.

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 bushy shrub 2 to 3 feet tall and 1 to 2 feet wide over a thick rootstock, and its new shoots can die back in winter. The narrow, finely toothed leaves run 1 to nearly 3 inches long, with three main veins from the base.

Dense, rounded clusters of tiny white flowers open from April to June at the tips of the leafy shoots. Bees and butterflies take the nectar, and it is a host plant of the mottled duskywing and spring azure. In late summer the three-lobed capsules split and throw their seeds, and birds eat the seed and nest in the shrub.

It grows wild on rocky, open hillsides, limestone glades and outcrops, little bluestem and sand prairies, and river bluffs, often rooted in cracks in limestone. Its range runs from Vermont and New York west to Montana and Wyoming, and south to Louisiana and Texas.

How to grow Prairie Redroot

Prairie redroot wants full sun, though it takes light shade. Give it a dry to medium soil that drains well, alkaline if you can. Clay, sandy loam and limy soil all suit it, and once established it stands long droughts. 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 potted. Its deep, spreading roots resent disturbance, so plant it young and leave it in place. Plant it in a hole wider than the pot and no deeper, set the crown at the soil line, and put the native soil back in. Soak the seed for 24 hours in water poured over it at 180 to 200 degrees as it cools. Then chill it damp in the refrigerator for 60 to 90 days before sowing.

Water weekly through the first summer if rain is short. Some wild stands are browsed hard by deer, so cage young plants where deer are many. It sprouts back after mowing or fire, so an old, leggy plant can be cut back hard in late winter.

Each flower carries both male and female parts, so there are no male and female plants to pair. The capsules burst when ripe and throw their seed, so tie a cloth bag over a cluster in late summer if you want to collect it.

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

Sources (13)