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varigated chastetree

Vitex trifolia · Verbenaceae

varigated chastetree (Vitex trifolia)
Photo: (c) Ron Burkert, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · via iNaturalist

varigated chastetree (Vitex trifolia) is a perennial shrub in the Verbenaceae family. It is introduced to North America rather than native. USDA records it as hardy in zone 10 and warmer, down to about 32°F.

At a glance

Typeshrub USDA
Lifecycleperennial USDA
Native statusintroduced USDA
Mature height10 ft USDA
Lightfull-sun USDA
Growth raterapid USDA
Soil pH6–8.5 USDA
BloomJune–August USDA
Flower colorBlue USDA
Hardiness zones10 and warmer USDA
Guild layershrub Derived
Nursery availabilityRoutinely Available USDA

USDA quoted from the USDA PLANTS database · Derived computed by a fixed rule from those columns. No value on this page is estimated.

Growing conditions

It needs full sun. It is recorded on soils from pH 6 to 8.5 — a broad range that spans acidic through mildly alkaline ground. Its cold limit is zone 10; USDA publishes no warm-end limit, so gardeners in warmer zones should check local heat tolerance separately.

Size and growth

At maturity it reaches about 10 ft, making it a mid-sized plant. It grows quickly, which matters when you are timing a planting around the layers above it.

Bloom period

USDA records a bloom period of June through August. The flower color USDA records is blue. Bloom timing is how the Guild Builder overlaps flowering across a planting so something is in flower for as much of the season as possible.

Bloom period is a claim about when this plant flowers. It is deliberately not a pollinator rating — no dataset we trust publishes one, so we do not make that claim. See Data & sources.

Role in a guild

Shrub layer. In a layered planting this is woody mid-level structure between the understory and the ground. We derive the layer from the plant's growth habit and mature height using a fixed rule, so the same inputs always produce the same layer.

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Tags

evergreendrought-tolerantsalt-tolerantclay-tolerantspreadingintroducedfull-sunfast-growing

Related plants

Others in Vitex

Similar role and hardiness

Where this data comes from

Every value on this page comes from the USDA PLANTS database record for symbol VITRV, or is computed from those values by a fixed rule. Nothing here is estimated or model-generated. Where USDA publishes no value, this page omits the claim rather than filling the gap.

Read our full data sources and methodology.

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