Ceanothus cordulatus |
Ceanothus palmeri |
|
---|---|---|
mountain whitethorn, snow bush, whitethorn ceanothus |
Palmer ceanothus, Palmer's ceanothus |
|
Habit | Shrubs, evergreen, 0.5–1.5 m. Stems ascending to spreading, not rooting at nodes; branchlets yellowish or grayish green, glaucescent, thorn-tipped, round in cross section, rigid, puberulent, glabrescent. | Shrubs, evergreen or semideciduous, 1–2 m. Stems ascending to erect, not rooting at nodes; branchlets green or gray-green, not thorn-tipped, round in cross section, flexible or rigid, glabrous or glabrate. |
Leaves | petiole 2–8 mm; blade flat to cupped, ovate to elliptic, 10–30 × 6–18 mm, base rounded, margins usually entire, sometimes minutely glandular-denticulate distally, glands 18–30, apex obtuse, abaxial surface pale grayish green, sparsely puberulent or glabrous, sometimes villosulous along veins, adaxial surface pale green to grayish green, glaucous, dull, glabrate; 3-veined from base. |
not fascicled; petiole 3–8 mm; blade ± cupped, elliptic, oblong, or oblong-ovate, 13–30 × 9–15 mm, base cuneate to obtuse, margins entire, apex acute to rounded, abaxial surface pale green, glabrous, adaxial surface green, dull to ± shiny, glabrous; usually pinnately veined, rarely 3-veined. |
Inflorescences | axillary, umbel-like or racemelike, sometimes densely clustered, 1.2–2(–4) cm. |
terminal or axillary, paniclelike, 7.5–22 cm. |
Flowers | sepals, petals, and nectary usually white, rarely pink. |
sepals, petals, and nectary usually white, rarely pale blue. |
Capsules | 3.5–5 mm wide, lobed; valves rugose, viscid when young, weakly crested. |
4.5–7 mm wide, lobed; valves smooth, viscid, crested. |
2n | = 24. |
|
Ceanothus cordulatus |
Ceanothus palmeri |
|
Phenology | Flowering May–Jul. | Flowering Mar–Jun. |
Habitat | Rocky ridges and slopes, chaparral, conifer and mixed evergreen forests. | Rocky slopes, chaparral, conifer forests. |
Elevation | 400–3400 m. (1300–11200 ft.) | 1100–1800 m. (3600–5900 ft.) |
Distribution |
CA; NV; OR; Mexico (Baja California)
|
CA; Mexico (Baja California)
|
Discussion | Ceanothus cordulatus is one of the most common shrubs in montane chaparral and forests of the Coast Ranges and Cascades of southern Oregon and northern California, southward through the Sierra Nevada, Transverse and Peninsular ranges of California, to the mountains of northern Baja California, and occurs disjunctly in the Charleston Mountains of Nevada. Putative hybrids between Ceanothus cordulatus and C. velutinus var. velutinus, reported from the Klamath Mountains, the southern Cascade Range, and the Sierra Nevada, have been called C. ×lorenzenii (Jepson) McMinn. A rare intersectional hybrid between C. cordulatus and C. prostratus in the Lake Tahoe basin has been named C. ×serrulatus McMinn. Putative hybrids of C. cordulatus with C. diversifolius and C. integerrimus also have been reported (H. McMinn 1944). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Ceanothus palmeri occurs in the Transverse and Peninsular ranges of California, with a disjunct distribution in the central Sierra Nevada foothills (Amador and El Dorado counties). Ceanothus palmeri appears to be closely related to and intermediate between C. integerrimus and C. spinosus (W. L. Jepson 1909–1943, vol. 2; M. Van Rensselaer and H. McMinn 1942). We treat this species as distinct from C. spinosus on the basis of its white flowers, and viscid, lobed fruit, but note that some populations intergrade, especially in the Transverse Ranges of southern California. Leaf blades of both C. palmeri and C. spinosus have somewhat shiny adaxial faces, but those of C. integerrimus appear dull. Included here are plants with weakly three-veined leaf blades with somewhat shiny adaxial surfaces from the Transverse Ranges, previously treated by Van Rensselaer and McMinn as part of C. integerrimus. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 12, p. 87. | FNA vol. 12, p. 86. |
Parent taxa | Rhamnaceae > Ceanothus > subg. Ceanothus | Rhamnaceae > Ceanothus > subg. Ceanothus |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | C. spinosus var. palmeri | |
Name authority | Kellogg: Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci. 2: 124, fig. 39. (1863) | Trelease: Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci., ser. 2, 1: 109. (1888) |
Web links |