Ceanothus cuneatus |
Ceanothus prostratus |
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buck brush, common buckbrush, narrow-leaf buckthorn, sedge-leaf buckthorn, wedgeleaf cuneatus |
mahala mat, prostrate ceanothus, squawcarpet |
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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, 0.1–0.3 m, matlike to moundlike. | ||||||||||||||||
Stems | prostrate, spreading, or ascending, rooting at distal nodes; branchlets reddish brown, ± flexible, puberulent, glabrescent. |
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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. |
not fascicled, crowded, usually longer than internodes and obscuring them; petiole 1–3 mm; blade flat to ± cupped, elliptic to obovate, 6–30 × 4–16 mm, base cuneate, margins sometimes thick, not revolute, sometimes wavy, sharply dentate to spinose-dentate, teeth 3–9, apex rounded, abaxial surface pale green, glabrous except sparsely strigillose on veins, adaxial surface dark green, shiny, glabrate. |
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Inflorescences | axillary or terminal, 0.8–2.5 cm. |
axillary, 0.9–2 cm. |
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Flowers | sepals, petals, and nectary white to lavender or blue. |
sepals, petals, and nectary pale to deep blue or purplish blue. |
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Capsules | 4–6 mm wide, weakly lobed; valves smooth, horns subapical, prominent, erect, intermediate ridges absent. |
6–9 mm wide, lobed; valves smooth to rugulose, horns subapical, prominent, erect or spreading, rugose or not, intermediate ridges present. |
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2n | = 24. |
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Ceanothus cuneatus |
Ceanothus prostratus |
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Distribution |
CA; OR; nw Mexico
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CA; ID; NV; OR; WA
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Discussion | Varieties 4 (4 in the flora). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Varieties 2 (2 in the flora). Putative hybrids between Ceanothus prostratus and C. velutinus var. velutinus, named C. ×rugosus, have been reported from northeastern California (H. McMinn 1944). A rare putative hybrid between C. prostratus and C. cordulatus in the Lake Tahoe basin has been named C. ×serrulatus. Both C. ×rugosus and C. ×serrulatus are intersubgeneric hybrids. Formally named hybrids between C. prostratus and C. cuneatus var. cuneatus include C. ×flexilis and possibly C. ×connivens, but the latter could have C. fresnensis as one of the parents rather than C. prostratus. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 12, p. 99. | FNA vol. 12, p. 104. | ||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Rhamnaceae > Ceanothus > subg. Cerastes | Rhamnaceae > Ceanothus > subg. Cerastes | ||||||||||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||||||||||
Synonyms | Rhamnus cuneata | |||||||||||||||||
Name authority | (Hooker) Nuttall: in J. Torrey and A. Gray, Fl. N. Amer. 1: 267. (1838) | Bentham: Pl. Hartw., 302. (1849) | ||||||||||||||||
Web links |