Enter your ZIP to see whether this is legal to plant in your state, and whether it survives your winter.
Yes, speedwell is rated fire resistant and is repeatedly recommended for firewise landscaping.
OSU, WSU, and University of Idaho Extension list Veronica as fire resistant. Ohio State University Extension assigns it L flammability, one of the two recommended bands on its five-band scale from VL through VH. LSU AgCenter includes speedwell among its recommended firewise ornamentals for Louisiana. With no methodology cited, this compiled recommendation provides corroboration only.
Oregon State University Extension Service provides more specific support. It profiles Veronica species as fire-resistant groundcovers for Willamette Valley growing conditions and later includes them in a gallery directing gardeners toward groundcovers for fire-resistant landscapes. Its profile places speedwell in USDA zones 4a to 8b. Ohio State’s L rating describes speedwell as variable in habit and specifies full sun and well-drained soil.
The Idaho Firewise workbook attributes its value of 30 to Idaho Database. That value falls outside Idaho Firewise’s 0–10 fire-resistance scale and cannot be translated into a resistance band or planting distance. The other institutional findings point the same way: speedwell is supported as a fire-resistant groundcover choice.
Form
groundcover
Rated in
Alaska; Louisiana; Maryland, New Jersey, and West Virginia; OR/WA/ID +4
On this lot
1. Fire evidence and conditions
Fire evidence
Fire-resistant — location does not change the cited classification.
Alaska Division of Forestry opens with the wildfire threat to Alaskans and publishes Alaska firewise-landscape examples. FireApproved publishes 58 exact source owners from its 60 taxon entries and holds the taxon-free fern label. State publication scope does not establish suitability for every Alaska climate, site, or home-ignition-zone placement.
Southern Idaho (ID footprint); partial normalized coverage · 2013-11-08
The official database labels itself "For Southern Idaho" and describes Idaho residents at the urban-rangeland interface. FireApproved publishes 419 existing plant owners that cite its scored rows. This bounded Southern Idaho scope is regional context, not statewide coverage or a conclusion that the score transfers unchanged to every Idaho site.
LSU AgCenter calls these 31 ornamentals commonly used in Louisiana and recommended for Louisiana firewise landscaping efforts. FireApproved publishes 31 exact source owners, mostly at the source's genus grain. Undocumented curation remains corroborative and is not site suitability.
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.
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.
The October 2023 joint Pacific Northwest Extension publication explicitly names Oregon, Washington, and Idaho and publishes more than 150 plant profiles. FireApproved has normalized 155 exact plant records from the source; publication scope does not assert that every listed plant suits every site within the three states.
2. Why this plant is relevant here
State distribution
Documented in ID, OR, WA.
Native range
Introduced / established
USDA hardiness
2 applicable cited hardiness statements overlap but have different boundaries; compare each complete source row.
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.
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.
3–8 explicit range · whole zone precision · source stated
Source taxon: Veronica spp. · exact match.
Source location: Speedwell profile, USDA hardiness zones field.
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.
Fire-resistant Landscape Plants for the Willamette Valley: Speedwell profile (PDF page 24) [osu-em-9103-profile] (with its recommendation)
Fire Resistance of Plants Master Database: 30 ft minimum planting distance on flat terrain [Idaho minimum planting distance] (with its recommendation)
Protect Your Home from Wildfire: Ground covers and perennials [Alaska DNR brochure sections] (with its recommendation)
Firewise Landscaping Plants: Herbaceous Annuals and Perennials [Maryland Firewise plant-form tables] (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.
Listed as Veronica spp. (Speedwell). The source says listed species exhibit stronger resistance to ignition by wildfires. Source comments: Native and cultivated varieties,adapting to many conditions. Do Not plant Veronica baccabunga, V. hederifolia, or V. serpyllifolia
