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 lemmonii

Ceanothus roderickii

Lemmon's ceanothus

pine Hill buckbrush, pine Hill ceanothus
Habit Shrubs, evergreen, 0.5–1 m. Stems ascending to spreading, not rooting at nodes; branchlets pale green to grayish green and glaucous, not thorn-tipped, round in cross section, flexible to ± rigid, sparsely villosulous. Shrubs, 0.1–0.5 m, moundlike.
Stems

prostrate or spreading, arcuate, often rooting at distal nodes;

branchlets brown to grayish brown, rigid, puberulent, glabrescent.
Leaves

petiole 2–6 mm;

blade flat, narrowly elliptic to oblong-elliptic, 13–35 × 6–15 mm, base cuneate to rounded, margins serrulate to denticulate most of length, not revolute, not wavy, teeth 34–45, apex acute to obtuse, abaxial surface pale green to grayish green and glaucous, villosulous, especially on veins, adaxial surface green, strigillose; pinnately veined or weakly 3-veined from base.

both fascicled and not on same plant, axillary short shoots erect;

petiole 1–2 mm;

blade folded lengthwise abaxially, elliptic to oblanceolate, 4–12 × 2–6 mm, base obtuse to cuneate, margins not revolute, entire or denticulate near apex, teeth 3–5, apex obtuse, abaxial surface pale green, glabrate or sparsely strigillose between the veins, adaxial surface green, glabrate.
Inflorescences

axillary or terminal, umbel-like to racemelike, 2–6.5 cm.

terminal or axillary, 0.6–1.4 cm.
Flowers

sepals, petals, and nectary pale to deep blue.

sepals and petals white to pale blue;

nectary blue.
Capsules

3–4 mm wide, lobed near apex;

valves smooth, crested.

4–5 mm wide, usually not, sometimes weakly lobed;

valves smooth or slightly rugulose, sometimes ridged, horns absent or weakly developed bulges, intermediate ridges absent.
2n

= 24.

Ceanothus lemmonii

Ceanothus roderickii
Phenology Flowering Apr–May. Flowering Apr–Jun.
Habitat Rocky slopes and flats, open sites, conifer forests, oak and pine woodlands. Rocky soils derived from gabbro, chaparral, pine woodlands.
Elevation 200–1300 m. (700–4300 ft.) 200–600 m. (700–2000 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
CA
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
CA
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Ceanothus lemmonii occurs in the inner North Coast Ranges, Klamath Mountains, and the western slope of the Cascade Range and northern Sierra Nevada. H. McMinn (1944) reported putative hybrids with C. foliosus, C. integerrimus, and C. oliganthus var. sorediatus.

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

Ceanothus roderickii is restricted to a few localities in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada (El Dorado County). A close relationship to C. cuneatus var. cuneatus is supported by molecular data (T. M. Hardig et al. 2000b). The ability to root at remote, distal nodes was shown to enhance density and recovery, long after episodic establishment from seeds following fires (R. S. Boyd 2007).

Ceanothus roderickii is in the Center for Plant Conservation's National Collection of Endangered Plants.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 12, p. 94. FNA vol. 12, p. 102.
Parent taxa Rhamnaceae > Ceanothus > subg. Ceanothus Rhamnaceae > Ceanothus > subg. Cerastes
Sibling taxa
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. 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. 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. sanguineus, C. sonomensis, C. spinosus, C. thyrsiflorus, C. tomentosus, C. velutinus, C. verrucosus
Name authority Parry: Proc. Davenport Acad. Nat. Sci. 5: 192. (1889) — (as lemmoni) W. Knight: Four Seasons 2(4): 23. (1968) — (as rodericki)
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

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