Flora of North America species comparison

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Ceanothus megacarpus

big pod ceanothus
Habit Shrubs, 1.5–6 m. Stems erect to ascending, not rooting at nodes; branchlets grayish brown to brown, flexible, appressed puberulent to tomentulose, hairs straight.
Leaves

sometimes alternate, not fascicled, sometimes crowded;

petiole 1–5 mm;

blade flat to cupped, oval, elliptic, or oblanceolate, 10–25(–33) × 5–19 mm, base cuneate to rounded, margins thick, usually entire, rarely remotely denticulate, teeth 5–7, apex obtuse, abaxial surface pale green, glabrous or sparsely strigillose on veins, adaxial surface green, glabrous.
Inflorescences

axillary, 1–2 cm.
Flowers

sepals and petals white;

nectary blue to black.
Capsules

7–12 mm wide, not lobed;

valves smooth or rugulose to weakly ridged near apex;

horns subapical, prominent, erect, often rugulose, or weakly developed to absent, intermediate ridges absent.
2n

= 24.

Ceanothus megacarpus
Distribution
from FNA
CA
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Varieties 2 (2 in the flora).

Some populations of Ceanothus megacarpus are polymorphic for leaf arrangement. Plants assignable to either var. insularis or var. megacarpus based on leaf arrangement may have fruits intermediate to both varieties. Putative hybrids between var. megacarpus and C. cuneatus were reported by H. McMinn (1944), but their variable leaf arrangement (alternate and opposite on the same plant) may also represent intermediates between var. insularis and var. megacarpus.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Leaves mostly alternate; capsule valves rugulose to weakly ridged near apex; horns prominent.
var. megacarpus
1. Leaves mostly opposite; fruit valves smooth; horns weakly developed or absent.
var. insularis
Source FNA vol. 12, p. 97.
Parent taxa 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. lemmonii, C. leucodermis, C. maritimus, C. martini, C. masonii, 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
Subordinate taxa
C. megacarpus var. insularis, C. megacarpus var. megacarpus
Synonyms C. macrocarpus
Name authority Nuttall: N. Amer. Sylv. 2: 46. (1846)
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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