Description A low shrub with tiny white flowers in oval clusters rising from the leaf axils on the current year's shoots.
Flowers: about 1/5" (5 mm) wide; petals 5, clawed; stamens 5, protruding.
Leaves: 1-3" (2.5-7.5 cm) long, 3-veined, toothed, ovate, sharp-pointed.
Fruit: 3-lobed, splitting into 3 parts.
Height: 3-4' (1-1.2 m).
Flowering: May-July.

Habitat Open woods, roadside clearings.

Range Manitoba to Quebec and Maine; south to Florida; west to Alabama.

Discussion The dried leaves of this nitrogen-fixing shrub make an excellent tea that was very popular during the Revolutionary War period. Smaller Red-root (C. ovatus), with flowers in a globose cluster and narrower leaves, ranges from Manitoba and western Quebec to western Maine, south to western Georgia, west to Alabama, Arkansas, and Texas. Small-leaved Red-root (C. microphyllus), has tiny leaves, less than 1/2" (1.3 cm) long, and occurs in sandy pine or oak woods in the South.