New Jersey Tea comes from three wild varieties that were commonly used as drink plants:

• Ceanothus americànus L. – “New Jersey Tea”
  • syn. Ceanothus intermedius Pursh
    
  • var. intermedius (Pursh) Torr. & A. Gray
  • var. pitcheri Torr. & A. Gray
• Ceanothus herbaceous Raf. – “Red Root”
  • syn. Ceanothus ovatus auct. non Desf.
  • syn. Ceanothus pubescens (Torr. & A. Gray ex S. Watson) Rydb. ex Small
  • var. pubescens (Torr. & A. Gray ex S. Watson) Shinners
• Ceanothus coeruleus Lag. – “Azure Ceanothus”
  
  • syn. Ceanothus azureus Ker Gawl.

These three plants were interbred over the past ~200 years to form the following hybrids:

• Ceanothus x delilianus Spach. = C. americanus + C. coeruleus
  • syn. Ceanothus x delileanus Spach.
  • ‘Gloire de Versailles’
  • ‘Topaz’
• Ceanothus x pallidus Lindl. = C. x delileanus + C. herbaceous
  • ‘Marie Simon’
  • ‘Marie Bleu’
  • ‘Roseus’