Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses - American ceanothus

AMERICAN CEANOTHUS

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Ceanothus americanus L.

Douglas County, Kansas

Perennial shrub

Height: 16-40 inches

Family: Rhamnaceae - Buckthorn Family

Flowering Period: May, June

Also Called:

New jersey tea.

Stems:

Shrub

Leaves:

Alternate: petioles 1/6 to 1/2 inch; blade 3-veined from near base, oblong to broadly oblong-ovate, 2/5 to 4 inches long, 1/5 to 2.4 inches wide, base broadly wedge-shaped to rounded or nearly cordate, margins serrate to serrulate, tip acute or obtuse, lower surface densely puberulent, upper surface sparsely puberulent, especially along veins.

Inflorescences:

Elongate panicles with scattered corymbs, terminal on short axillary shoots of the year; peduncles 1.6 to 4 inches, those of proximal inflorescences longer than subtending leaves, naked or occasionally with 1-2 distal leaf-like bracts.

Flowers:

Sepals 5, white, incurved between petals, deciduous, 1/50 to 1/25 inch; petals 5, white, 1/16 to 1/10 inch, longer than sepals, long-clawed, spreading, apex not notched; stamens 5, exserted at flowering; style 3-lobed.

Fruits:

Drupes black, capsule-like, 1/6 to 1/5 inch, subtended by persistent hypanthium, 3-lobed, each lobe crested; stones usually 3; seeds 1 per stone, reddish brown, smooth, glossy, ca. 1/12 inch.

Habitat:

Rocky tallgrass and mixed-grass prairies, and woodlands

Distribution:

East 1/2 of Kansas

Origin:

Native

Uses:

Native Americans used the leaves to make a tea-like beverage and took infusions of the roots for constipation, pulmonary troubles, colds, and stomach troubles. Great Plains tribes used the woody roots as fuel when on buffalo hunts when there was a scarcity of timber. The leaves were used as a tea substitute during the Revolutionary War.

Comments:

Ceanothus, from the Greek name of spiny plant not of this genus.