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Fivepetal cliffbush has Firewise support, but it has not received a direct fire-resistance verdict.
Fremont County Firewise includes Jamesia americana in its shrub list. It describes the plants on its Firewise lists generally as low-growing, low-debris, and relatively moist, but provides no comparative classes or adverse list. The listing therefore supports fivepetal cliffbush as a Firewise landscape choice without separately classifying its resistance to fire.
Elevation changes New Mexico’s guidance. Its Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department Forestry Division also lists the shrub. The separate elevation field marks 4,000 feet as not recommended, 5,000 feet as unknown or doubtful, and 6,000 through 9,000-plus feet as suitable. Other informational fields give medium-to-high water need, sun or shade, mature height of two to four feet, and June bloom. Those details describe the plant within the list; they are not stated as requirements for the recommendation.
Fivepetal cliffbush is a Hydrangeaceae shrub native in the Southwestern, Northwestern, and South-Central United States. The two compiled regional lists point toward Firewise use, but neither supplies a direct resistant or nonresistant classification. The sound conclusion is that it is recommended in these programs, while the narrower question of fire resistance remains unsettled.
Form
shrub
Rated in
Fremont County, Wyoming; New Mexico
On this lot
1. Fire evidence and conditions
Fire evidence
Mixed evidence — location does not change the cited classification.
Fremont County (WY footprint); partial normalized coverage · 2011-02-25
The source identifies itself as the Fremont County Firewise Plant List. FireApproved publishes its 92 exact source owners as Fremont County regional context. No methodology, current county endorsement, statewide Wyoming scope, or site-specific suitability is inferred.
New Mexico Forestry Division publishes this as its FireWise Plant List for New Mexico. FireApproved accounts for all 140 printed rows and publishes 95 exact same-rank owners already represented in the directory; 29 exact taxa without an existing record, 14 unresolved spellings or higher-rank matches, one compound taxon cell, and one species row whose only apparent owner has an infraspecific printed identity remain held. Every published row retains the source's Y, N, ?, or blank elevation cells. Publication scope does not erase those elevation limits or establish suitability for every New Mexico site.
2. Why this plant is relevant here
State distribution
Documented in CA, NV.
Native range
Current cited native range in AZ, CA, CO, NM, NV, UT, WY.
Introduced / established
USDA hardiness
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.
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.
FireWise Plant List for New Mexico: PDF page 4, Shrubs, p4-r14 [nm-emnrd-firewise-table-row] (with its recommendation)
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.
“Fremont County Firewise Plant List — Jamesia americana — Wax Flower”
Listed in the source's Shrubs section; the page describes its listed Firewise plants as generally low-growing, low-debris, and relatively moist.
FireWise Plant List for New Mexico — New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department, Forestry Division · 2003 Forestry Division PDF · original sourceCorroborationCompilationlineage: csu-nmsu-firewise
“FireWise Plant List for New Mexico”
Listed as Jamesia americana (Waxflower) in Shrubs. Printed elevation cells: 4,000 ft=N, 5,000 ft=?, 6,000 ft=Y, 7,000 ft=Y, 8,000 ft=Y, 9,000+ ft=Y. Water need: M-H; sun/shade: S/Sh; mature height: 2-4’; approximate bloom: Jun.
