Flora of North America species comparison

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Ceanothus cuneatus

Ceanothus cuneatus var. ramulosus

buck brush, common buckbrush, narrow-leaf buckthorn, sedge-leaf buckthorn, wedgeleaf cuneatus
Photo is of parent taxon

buck brush, coast buck brush
Habit Shrubs, 0.5–3.5 m. Stems erect, ascending, or spreading, not rooting at nodes; branchlets grayish brown to brown, rigid or flexible, glabrate, puberulent, or tomentulose, hairs straight. Shrubs, (0.5–)1–2.5 m. Stems erect, ascending, or spreading; branchlets gray to grayish brown.
Leaves

usually both fascicled and not fascicled on same plant, rarely none fascicled;

petiole 1–3 mm;

blade flat to cupped, elliptic, oblanceolate, obovate, or orbiculate, 4–22(–30) × 3–12(–22) mm, base rounded, margins thick, not revolute, entire or denticulate distal to middle, teeth 0–9, apex obtuse, rounded, truncate, or retuse, abaxial surface pale green, glabrate or glabrous, adaxial surface green, glabrous.

blades of fascicled and non-fascicled leaves cupped, widely oblanceolate, widely obovate, or orbiculate, 5–15 × 3–12 mm, length usually less than 2 times width, margins usually entire, rarely 1–4-toothed, apex rounded, truncate, or retuse.
Inflorescences

axillary or terminal, 0.8–2.5 cm.

Flowers

sepals, petals, and nectary white to lavender or blue.

sepals, petals, and nectary lavender to blue.
Capsules

4–6 mm wide, weakly lobed;

valves smooth, horns subapical, prominent, erect, intermediate ridges absent.

5–6 mm wide.
2n

= 24.

Ceanothus cuneatus

Ceanothus cuneatus var. ramulosus
Phenology Flowering Feb–May.
Habitat Rocky slopes, often on serpentine, chaparral, pine woodlands.
Elevation 10–800 m. (0–2600 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
CA; OR; nw Mexico
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
CA
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Varieties 4 (4 in the flora).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Variety ramulosus occurs disjunctly in the San Francisco Bay area (Alameda, Contra Costa, Lake, Marin, Napa, Santa Cruz, and Sonoma counties) and on coastal slopes in western San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties. In both areas, plants occur primarily but not exclusively on serpentine soils. Some specimens in the San Francisco Bay area are intermediate to var. cuneatus, while others in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties suggest intergradation with var. fascicularis. Plants on Point Sal Ridge in western Santa Barbara County are low-growing, less than one meter, and have ascending to spreading stems, features that are retained in cultivation.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Leaf blades of fascicled and non-fascicled leaves elliptic to widely oblanceolate, length usually 2+ times width; sepals, petals, and nectaries usually white, sometimes pale blue or pale lavender.
var. cuneatus
1. Leaf blades of fascicled and non-fascicled leaves widely oblanceolate, widely obovate, or orbiculate, length usually less than 2 times width, or of fascicled leaves elliptic to narrowly oblanceolate (in var. fascicularis); sepals, petals, and nectaries usually lavender to blue, sometimes pale blue, rarely white.
→ 2
2. Leaf blades of fascicled leaves elliptic to narrowly oblanceolate, 9–15 × 3–6 mm, length usually 2+ times width.
var. fascicularis
2. Leaf blades of fascicled leaves widely oblanceolate, widely obovate, or orbiculate, 4–15 × 3–12 mm, length less than 2 times width.
→ 3
3. Leaf blade margins usually entire, rarely 1–4-toothed, apices rounded, truncate, or retuse.
var. ramulosus
3. Leaf blade margins 5–9-toothed, apices rounded to truncate.
var. rigidus
Source FNA vol. 12, p. 99. FNA vol. 12, p. 100.
Parent taxa Rhamnaceae > Ceanothus > subg. Cerastes Rhamnaceae > Ceanothus > subg. Cerastes > Ceanothus cuneatus
Sibling taxa
C. americanus, C. arboreus, C. arcuatus, C. confusus, C. cordulatus, C. crassifolius, C. cyaneus, C. dentatus, C. divergens, C. diversifolius, C. fendleri, C. ferrisiae, C. foliosus, C. fresnensis, C. gloriosus, C. griseus, C. hearstiorum, C. herbaceus, C. impressus, C. incanus, C. integerrimus, C. jepsonii, C. lemmonii, C. leucodermis, C. maritimus, C. martini, C. masonii, C. megacarpus, C. microphyllus, C. oliganthus, C. ophiochilus, C. otayensis, C. palmeri, C. papillosus, C. parryi, C. parvifolius, C. pauciflorus, C. perplexans, C. pinetorum, C. prostratus, C. pumilus, C. purpureus, C. roderickii, C. sanguineus, C. sonomensis, C. spinosus, C. thyrsiflorus, C. tomentosus, C. velutinus, C. verrucosus
C. cuneatus var. cuneatus, C. cuneatus var. fascicularis, C. cuneatus var. rigidus
Subordinate taxa
C. cuneatus var. cuneatus, C. cuneatus var. fascicularis, C. cuneatus var. ramulosus, C. cuneatus var. rigidus
Synonyms Rhamnus cuneata
Name authority (Hooker) Nuttall: in J. Torrey and A. Gray, Fl. N. Amer. 1: 267. (1838) Greene: Fl. Francisc., 86. (1891)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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