United States / Grow / California buckthorn

California buckthorn (Frangula californica)
Photo: no rights reserved (CC0), via iNaturalist. Species-typical, not necessarily this cultivar.

California buckthorn

Frangula californica · Rhamnaceae · all Frangula records · also called Coffee berry (CA buckthorn) · Wikipedia

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Form
shrub
Rated in
Yavapai County, Arizona
On this lot

1. Fire evidence and conditions

Fire evidence
Mixed evidence — location does not change the cited classification.
Evidence regions
Yavapai County, Arizona
Typed publication scope: 1 scope across 1 cited fire source

2. Why this plant is relevant here

State distribution
Documented in AZ, CA, HI, NM, NV, OR.
Native range
Current cited native range in AZ, CA, NM, NV, OR.
Introduced / established
1 sourced range or established record. This is not an invasive warning.

3. Legal, ecological, and broader status

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.

Current native

5

exact source areas

Current introduced

1

exact source area

Qualified

0

doubtful or extinct source rows

5 native source areas · World Checklist of Vascular Plants, version 16 v16, as of 2026-06-04
  • Arizona (AZ)
  • California (CA)
  • New Mexico (NM)
  • Nevada (NV)
  • Oregon (OR)
1 introduced source area · World Checklist of Vascular Plants, version 16 v16, as of 2026-06-04
  • Hawaii (HI)

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.

The evidence

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.

Recommends (1)

Corroboration (1 rows from 1 source)
  • Fire-Resistant and Fire-Prone Plants Common to Yavapai County (Bulletin 34) — University of Arizona Cooperative Extension, Yavapai County · v1.2 · original source Corroboration Expert-curated lineage: unknown

    “Fire-Resistant Plants”

    Listed as Coffee berry (CA buckthorn) — Frangula californica. The bulletin says fire-resistant plants tend to resist ignition when irrigated and maintained, while fire-prone plants may ignite readily and burn intensely.

Fire-resistant shrubs instead

Last verified 2026-08-23. JSON (CC BY 4.0)

Profiles: USDA PLANTS · GBIF · iNaturalist · Wikidata · Wikipedia · ITIS

Frangula californica (Coffee berry (CA buckthorn)). FireApproved. https://fireapproved.com/plants/frangula-californica/. Last verified 2026-08-23.