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§1 Plant

Clethra alnifolia L.

vernacular coastal sweetpepperbush — species · Clethraceae

USDA
CLAL3
GBIF
2888323
Rank
species
coastal sweetpepperbush (Clethra alnifolia)
Platephotograph · Tom PotterfieldCC BY-NC-SA source · iNaturalist ↗

§2Habit & range

Habit and range

Growth habit
Shrub
Duration
Perennial
Group
Dicot
Family
Clethraceae Klotzsch
Genus
Clethra
§2a

Native status, by region

  • CAN Canada Native
  • L48 Lower 48 States Native
§2b

County-level range

· 208 counties across 12 states/territories
Legend Native · 208 Introduced · 0 Both · 0 Hover a county for detail.

§3Cultivation specs · USDA

Recorded by the USDA Plant Materials Program.

§3a

Tolerances

Drought
Low
Shade
Medium
Moisture use
High
Fire
High
Salinity
None
Anaerobic
Medium
CaCO₃
Low
Hedging
Low
§3b

Climate & soil

Cold tolerance
-23 °F minimum
Frost-free days
150 min.
Precipitation
35–60 in/yr
pH range
4.5–7
Root depth
16 in min.
Fertility need
Medium
Soil texture
coarse, medium
§3c

Form & growth

Growth form
Multiple Stem
Growth rate
Moderate
Lifespan
Moderate
Mature height
16 ft
Height @ 20 y
16 ft
Foliage texture
Coarse
Foliage colour
Green
Porosity (summer)
Moderate
Porosity (winter)
Porous
Flower colour
White
Fruit colour
Brown
Fire resistant
No
N fixation
None
Toxicity
None
§3d

Reproduction

Bloom period
Summer
Seed abundance
Low
Seed begins
Summer
Seed ends
Fall
Spread rate
Slow
Stratify
No
Propagation
seed, bare root, container
§3e

Use & availability

Commercial availability
Routinely Available
Nursery stock
No
Browse palatability
Medium
Graze palatability
Low
Palatable, human
No
Protein potential
Low
Lumber
No
Christmas tree
No

§4Counties, by state

Recorded in 208 counties across 12 states/territories.

Alabama view state ↗ 20 N ▾
Delaware view state ↗ 1 N ▾
Florida view state ↗ 24 N ▾
Georgia view state ↗ 52 N ▾
Maine view state ↗ 3 N ▾
Massachusetts view state ↗ 13 N ▾
New Hampshire view state ↗ 5 N ▾
New Jersey view state ↗ 21 N ▾
New York view state ↗ 15 N ▾
Pennsylvania view state ↗ 12 N ▾
Rhode Island view state ↗ 5 N ▾
Virginia view state ↗ 37 N ▾

§5Sources & provenance

USDA PLANTS

Symbol, taxonomy, distribution, cultivation specs, native status. Public domain.

plants.usda.gov/CLAL3 ↗

GBIF Backbone

Canonical taxonomic identity, synonym resolution, cross-refs. CC0.

gbif.org/species/2888323 ↗

Record version

Cached and built locally. Source version on this record:

usda-plants-mt-2026-05-26

fetched 2026-05-26T05:06:36Z