Enter your ZIP to see whether this is legal to plant in your state, and whether it survives your winter.
Yellowroot is rated fire resistant, but its short growth does not remove the Eastern selector's unpruned-ladder warning.
Ohio State's 2006 Firewise Landscaping bulletin names Xanthorhiza simplicissima as yellowroot, a groundcover with Low flammability. Its table describes adaptability to a range of soils and calls it a tall groundcover. These ratings reflect experience rather than a controlled burning experiment. The accompanying discussion warns that groundcovers can supply material or hold debris that assists fire spread.
The historical Eastern United States Fire Performance Plant Selector gives yellowroot a Moderately Firewise rating of 2. In the same row, it records a mature height of 1 foot and marks ladder potential WITHOUT PRUNING as Yes. A low growth habit and a favorable rating therefore belong alongside that warning. The selector specifies full sun, adaptable soil pH and medium tolerance of poorly drained soils.
On sites with high fire risk, the selector assigns yellowroot to Landscape Zone 2, 5 to 10 feet from a house or structure, with maintained lawn and fuel breaks. Its tree instructions require at least 10 feet of both vertical and horizontal clearance from the structure at maturity and 10 to 15 feet between crown edges; those are not gaps prescribed between groundcovers. The introduction also requires at least 2 feet between vegetation and a structure at full growth. The height entry does not authorize a one-foot mature foundation gap.
For upkeep, Ohio names dead leaves and twigs for removal. The selector additionally specifies needles and deadwood on the plant and ground, together with watering, pruning and vertical and horizontal spacing. It advises against close mass planting. Yellowroot's low profile does not replace that work or cancel the separate ladder-potential flag.
Form
groundcover
Mature height
~1 ft
Light
Full sun
Rated in
Ohio / Midwest; eastern US
On this lot
1. Fire evidence and conditions
Fire evidence
Fire-resistant — location does not change the cited classification.
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.
2. Why this plant is relevant here
State distribution
Documented in AL, CT, DC, DE, FL, GA, KY, LA, MA, MD, ME, MS, NC, NJ, NY, OH, PA, SC, TN, TX, VA, WV.
Native range
Current cited native range in AL, FL, GA, KY, LA, MA, ME, MS, NC, NH, NY, OH, SC, TN, TX, VA, WV.
Introduced / established
1 sourced range or established record. This is not an invasive warning.
USDA hardiness
Only uncertain or inapplicable hardiness rows are cited; no primary zone is projected.
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 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.
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.
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)
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.
