Ceanothus cyaneus |
Ceanothus palmeri |
|
---|---|---|
lakeside ceanothus, San Diego buckbrush |
Palmer ceanothus, Palmer's ceanothus |
|
Habit | Shrubs, evergreen, 2–5 m. Stems erect, not rooting at nodes; branchlets light green, not thorn-tipped, angled in cross section, flexible, often tuberculate (tubercles minute, brownish), 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 2–6 mm; blade flat, ovate-elliptic, 20–50 × 15–20 mm, base rounded, margins usually denticulate to serrulate, rarely entire, not revolute, teeth 23–58, apex acute to obtuse, abaxial surface pale green, veins puberulent, adaxial surface dark green, glabrous or sparsely puberulent; 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 | terminal, paniclelike, 15–30(–40) cm. |
terminal or axillary, paniclelike, 7.5–22 cm. |
Flowers | sepals, petals, and nectary deep blue. |
sepals, petals, and nectary usually white, rarely pale blue. |
Capsules | 3–5 mm wide, deeply lobed; valves smooth, weakly crested. |
4.5–7 mm wide, lobed; valves smooth, viscid, crested. |
2n | = 24. |
|
Ceanothus cyaneus |
Ceanothus palmeri |
|
Phenology | Flowering Apr–Jun. | Flowering Mar–Jun. |
Habitat | Rocky or gravelly slopes, chaparral. | Rocky slopes, chaparral, conifer forests. |
Elevation | 40–600 m. (100–2000 ft.) | 1100–1800 m. (3600–5900 ft.) |
Distribution |
CA; Mexico (Baja California)
|
CA; Mexico (Baja California)
|
Discussion | Ceanothus cyaneus is known in the flora area only from San Diego County, and is threatened throughout its range. (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. 90. | FNA vol. 12, p. 86. |
Parent taxa | Rhamnaceae > Ceanothus > subg. Ceanothus | Rhamnaceae > Ceanothus > subg. Ceanothus |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | C. spinosus var. palmeri | |
Name authority | Eastwood: Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci., ser. 4, 16: 361. (1927) | Trelease: Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci., ser. 2, 1: 109. (1888) |
Web links |