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Witchhazel

Hamamelis spp. (accepted: Hamamelis) · Hamamelidaceae · all Hamamelis records

Your local evidence lens

Separate evidence questions, never one approval badge

Set a ZIP to compare this record with state distribution, native range, USDA hardiness, and invasive records.

A genus split is not a placement verdict. Set a ZIP to read the local documented split.

1. Fire evidence and conditions

Fire evidence
Mixed evidence — location does not change the cited classification.
Fire-performance conditions
No test or rating condition is normalized.
Fire ecology context
No section-reviewed fire-ecology context is normalized.
Placement evidence
2 source placement records; source schemes remain separate.
Evidence regions
British Columbia; South Carolina
Maintenance
No sourced horticultural maintenance assertion is normalized; fire-test conditions do not supply maintenance advice.
Typed publication scope: 1 scope across 1 cited fire source
  • Landscaping Can Be Attractive & FIREWISE (Fire Smart Plant List for SC) · Official scoped edition
    • SC; partial normalized coverage

      South Carolina Forestry Commission publishes this explicitly as its Fire Smart Plant List for South Carolina. FireApproved publishes 63 exact genus owners from 72 unique common-name labels; unsafe common-name mappings and duplicates are not broadened. The brochure calls the list non-inclusive and does not establish species-level or site-specific suitability.

2. Why this plant is relevant here

State distribution
Documented in WA, OR, ID.
Native range
No current cited or legacy state native range is normalized.
Introduced / established
No introduced or established row is normalized; that does not prove native status.
USDA hardiness
No hardiness value is normalized.

3. Legal, ecological, and broader status

Legal-list status
Set a location for an exact legal-list result; source silence is not clearance.
Seed-list status
Set a location to compare the separate state noxious-weed seed layer.
Reported invasive here
No ecological invasive report is normalized; that does not prove noninvasiveness.
Broader regional context
Aggregate AK, HI, and L48 evidence is shown only as regional context, never as an exact-state finding.
Federal context
Federal designations remain separate from state legal-list results.
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.

Witchhazel (Hamamelis spp.)
Photo: (c) brownwaspmantidfly, some rights reserved (CC BY) (CC BY), via iNaturalist. Species-typical, not necessarily this cultivar.
Form
shrub
Grows in
WA, OR, ID
Rated in
British Columbia; South Carolina
Family
Hamamelidaceae
Evidence
2 cited sources

Where its sources say to plant it

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.

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 (2)

Fire-resistant shrubs instead

Kinnikinnick
Arctostaphylos uva-ursi Red-osier dogwood
Cornus sericea Hardy shrub rose
Rosa Snowberry
Symphoricarpos albus Creeping holly
Berberis repens Shrubby cinquefoil
Dasiphora fruticosa
Same genus in the directory · the Hamamelis group page

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

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

Hamamelis spp. (Witchhazel). FireApproved. https://fireapproved.com/plants/hamamelis/. Last verified 2026-08-23.