Flora of North America species comparison

The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Ceanothus cuneatus

Ceanothus microphyllus

buck brush, common buckbrush, narrow-leaf buckthorn, sedge-leaf buckthorn, wedgeleaf cuneatus

littleleaf buckbrush, sandflat ceanothus
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, deciduous, 0.4–0.7 m. Stems erect to ascending, not rooting at nodes; branchlets reddish green or yellow-green, not thorn-tipped, round in cross section, flexible, usually puberulent, sometimes strigillose.
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.

often fascicled;

petiole 0.5–1 mm;

blade flat, elliptic, ovate-elliptic, or narrowly obovate, 2–10 × 1–6 mm, base cuneate, margins entire or weakly denticulate distally, not wavy, teeth 5–9, apex rounded or obtuse, abaxial surface pale green, puberulent on veins, adaxial surface green, glabrous; pinnately veined or 3-veined from base (venation obscure).
Inflorescences

axillary or terminal, 0.8–2.5 cm.

axillary or terminal, umbel-like or ± racemelike, 1–3 cm.
Flowers

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

sepals, petals, and nectary white.
Capsules

4–6 mm wide, weakly lobed;

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

3–4.5 mm wide, lobed;

valves smooth, not crested.

Ceanothus cuneatus

Ceanothus microphyllus
Phenology Flowering Mar–Jun.
Habitat Sandy flats, shrublands, pine-oak woodlands.
Elevation 0–200 m. (0–700 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
CA; OR; nw Mexico
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AL; FL; GA
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Varieties 4 (4 in the flora).

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

Short-statured plants of Ceanothus microphyllus with ovate-elliptic leaves, evident venation, and racemelike inflorescences have been called C. serpyllifolius (M. Van Rensselaer and H. McMinn 1942; W. H. Duncan and J. T. Kartesz 1981). Ceanothus serpyllifolius is treated here as part of C. microphyllus, because of continuous variation in leaf size, shape, and inflorescence architecture. Ceanothus serpyllifolius also has been applied to small-leaved, short-statured plants of C. americanus, some of which may be hybrids between that species and C. microphyllus (N. C. Coile 1988).

(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. 83.
Parent taxa Rhamnaceae > Ceanothus > subg. Cerastes Rhamnaceae > Ceanothus > subg. Ceanothus
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. americanus, C. arboreus, C. arcuatus, C. confusus, C. cordulatus, C. crassifolius, C. cuneatus, 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. 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
Subordinate taxa
C. cuneatus var. cuneatus, C. cuneatus var. fascicularis, C. cuneatus var. ramulosus, C. cuneatus var. rigidus
Synonyms Rhamnus cuneata C. serpyllifolius
Name authority (Hooker) Nuttall: in J. Torrey and A. Gray, Fl. N. Amer. 1: 267. (1838) Michaux: Fl. Bor.-Amer. 1: 154. (1803)
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).



Type/paste one or more Latin names into the boxes above; matching taxa will show up below the box as you type. You can use the up/down arrow keys to move through the list.

(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Fabaceae, Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

Choose a data source: Flora of North America, OregonFlora, UW Burke Herbarium

The species comparison tool is brought to you by:
Northwest Wildflowers