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Eastern sweetshrub is rated fire resistant, with six extension sources agreeing on low flammability or recommending it.
NC State University, North Carolina Cooperative Extension and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service placed eastern sweetshrub in the low class of a four-level scale in 2005. NC State Extension again called it low in 2025. Ohio State University Extension gave it an L on its five-point scale, while Virginia Cooperative Extension and Virginia Tech assigned an L on their three-point scale. Those low ratings fall within the recommended bands of both systems.
The University of Tennessee Extension lists eastern sweetshrub as a Firewise plant. Oregon State University Extension Service also profiles it among fire-resistant plants suited to Willamette Valley growing conditions. The methods vary from graded flammability scales to recommended-plant lists, but none gives the shrub a mixed or unfavorable result.
Eastern sweetshrub is an approximately eight-foot shrub in the Calycanthaceae family that grows in full sun. It is native in the Southeastern and Northeastern United States, has been introduced in Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland and New York, and is hardy to USDA zone 5a. Its aromatic flowers and stems appear in the Ohio and Virginia descriptions, while the fire judgment itself rests on the consistent low ratings and recommendations.
Form
shrub
Mature height
~8 ft
Light
Full sun
Rated in
Maryland, New Jersey, and West Virginia; NC; North Carolina; North Carolina / southeastern US +5
On this lot
1. Fire evidence and conditions
Fire evidence
Fire-resistant — location does not change the cited classification.
Maryland, New Jersey, and West Virginia; NC; North Carolina; North Carolina / southeastern US; Ohio / Midwest; Oregon (Willamette Valley); Tennessee; Virginia / Mid-Atlantic; eastern US
Maintenance
Typed publication scope: 8 scopes across 6 cited fire sources
Maryland Forest Service says the list contains plants that can be grown in Maryland and identifies Maryland natives. FireApproved publishes 169 exact source owners from the 180 printed rows; an unrepresentable form and duplicate-owner rows are not broadened. The list calls itself non-comprehensive and does not establish suitability for every Maryland site.
NJ; partial normalized coverage
New Jersey DEP publishes a state edition saying the listed plants can be grown in New Jersey and are relatively resistant to fire. Its same 180 printed taxon occurrences map to the 169 conservative owners already normalized for the template family. The list is non-comprehensive and does not establish suitability for every New Jersey site or override the Pinelands Commission's separate placement and fuel-break rules.
WV; partial normalized coverage · 2026-08-26
West Virginia Division of Forestry publishes a state edition saying the listed plants can be grown in West Virginia and are relatively resistant to fire. Its same 180 printed taxon occurrences map to the 169 conservative owners already normalized for the template family. The list is non-comprehensive and provides no comparative or site-specific rating.
The complete three-table AG-874 plant list is explicitly for North Carolina and contains 202 low-, medium-, or high-flammability rows. FireApproved accounts for all source rows under its strict taxonomy and lineage rules; source scope does not establish local suitability at a particular North Carolina site.
Ohio State University Extension Bulletin 921 is an Ohio publication that describes Ohio fire seasons and landscape conditions and labels nativity to Ohio. FireApproved publishes 352 exact source-owning plant records from its eight rated tables. This historical publication scope does not assert current extension endorsement or that a listed plant suits every Ohio site.
Willamette Valley (OR footprint); partial normalized coverage · 2015-02-01
OSU Extension says EM 9103 highlights fire-resistant plants that thrive under Willamette Valley growing conditions. FireApproved publishes 172 exact owners only as valley context. The guide shares the PNW 590 lineage and is not a second independent vote or statewide site clearance.
University of Tennessee Extension SP685 is Tennessee landscape guidance and publishes 78 represented plant owners. Most table rows are a carrier of Virginia Firescapes rather than an independent rating; Tennessee source scope does not change that lineage or establish site suitability.
Virginia Cooperative Extension's publication opens with Virginia wildfire conditions, identifies its Virginia Firewise Landscaping Task Force, and labels plants native to Virginia. FireApproved publishes 306 exact source owners. Publication scope does not establish parcel suitability or current endorsement of this archived 2009 list.
2. Why this plant is relevant here
State distribution
Documented in AL, CT, DC, DE, FL, GA, IL, KY, LA, MA, MD, MO, MS, NC, NJ, NY, OH, PA, SC, TN, VA, WV.
Native range
Current cited native range in AL, FL, GA, KY, MS, NC, PA, SC, TN, VA, WV.
Introduced / established
4 sourced range or established records. This is not an invasive warning.
USDA hardiness
Documented range 4–9.
3. Legal, ecological, and broader status
Legal-list status
Seed-list status
Reported invasive here
Broader regional context
Federal context
How to read this page
The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.
Native and introduced range evidence
These are exact U.S. botanical-area records from the cited range source. Native and
introduced describe biogeographic relationship, not fire performance or planting approval.
Doubtful and extinct rows stay visible but do not count as current presence.
The lossless worldwide derivative is retained once in the research corpus; object pages repeat only exact U.S. areas needed by the local lens. The JSON twin carries the same page assertions.
Plant hardiness evidence
These values describe the plant source. Your ZIP zone comes from the separate 2023 USDA
Plant Hardiness Zone Map. Whole-zone values stay whole-zone, and a single unresolved value
is not treated as a tolerance range. Different source boundaries stay separate: overlapping
statements are compared independently, while only ranges with no shared zone are called a conflict.
Source prints 5 · single-value meaning unresolved · whole zone precision · source stated
Source taxon: Calycanthus floridus · exact match.
Source location: Cold Hardiness Zone field in the recovered selector record.
Not used for comparison: The recovered selector prints one Cold Hardiness Zone value but does not define it as a minimum threshold or a one-zone range.
Placement rules below use each source's own distances or named zones, tied to its rating.
They are not interchangeable with the directory's current Zone 0 guidance.
Eastern United States Fire Performance Plant Selector: Landscape Zone 2 — 5–10 ft from the structure; maintained lawn or fuel breaks, with easily ignited evergreens avoided [Fire Performance Plant Selector landscape zone] (mid-scale rating)
Fire-resistant Landscape Plants for the Willamette Valley: Sweetshrub profile (PDF page 160) [osu-em-9103-profile] (with its recommendation)
North Carolina Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: calycanthus-floridus [nc-toolbox-flammability-facet] (with its recommendation)
Grouped by what each source concluded. Primary evidence rated the plant itself
(a lab, field program, or original curation); corroboration compiled or
republished another source's rating and resolves to its root lineage.
Listed as Calycanthus floridus (Sweetshrub; Carolina Allspice). The source says listed species exhibit stronger resistance to ignition by wildfires. Source comments: Aromatic flowers and stems
