Description

Key Information:

Soil: Mesic (Medium) – Xeric (Dry)
Sun: Full Sun – Part Sun
Height: 18-36″
Color: White
Bloom: June – August

More Detail:

Suggested Uses: New Jersey Tea is a small native shrub that is excellent for gardens and restoration projects. It has showy white flower clusters and deep blueish-colored fruit. This plant is very attractive birds, butterflies and native bees.  This nitrogen-fixing shrub does best on sandier, well-drained soils.

Native Range: Native throughout the eastern half and the U.S.

Pollinators: It is an excellent pollinator plant. Pollinators include bees, butterflies and beneficial wasps, flies, beetles and sawflies. It is favored by the federally endangered Rusty patched Bumble Bee (Bombus affinis)! It is a host plant for spring azure, summer azure and mottled duskywing butterflies. It is also a great nectar source for adult butterflies.

Flowers: The 1/5″ flowers have 5 white spreading petals and 5 stamens.

Leaves: The leaves are alternate, toothed, and sharp-veined. They are oblong in shape and have soft hairs on the underside.

Other Uses: The bark is very high in tannin and is used to tan hides.

More information: USDA plant profile