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 papillosus

Ceanothus roderickii

wartleaf ceanothus

pine Hill buckbrush, pine Hill ceanothus
Habit Shrubs, evergreen, 1–5 m. Stems erect to ascending, not rooting at nodes; branchlets green to reddish brown, not thorn-tipped, round in cross section, ± flexible to rigid, densely tomentulose. 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 1–3 mm;

blade cupped to flat, linear, narrowly oblong, or oblong-elliptic, 12–50 × 6–15 mm, base obtuse to rounded, margins minutely glandular-denticulate, revolute, glands 17–31, apex obtuse, truncate, or retuse, abaxial surface pale green, densely villosulous to tomentulose, adaxial surface dark green, sparsely puberulent and glandular-papillate; pinnately veined.

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, racemelike, 2–8 cm.

terminal or axillary, 0.6–1.4 cm.
Flowers

sepals, petals, and nectary deep blue.

sepals and petals white to pale blue;

nectary blue.
Capsules

2–3 mm wide, lobed;

valves smooth, viscid when young, not or weakly 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 papillosus

Ceanothus roderickii
Phenology Flowering Mar–May. Flowering Apr–Jun.
Habitat Rocky ridges, slopes, and flats, chaparral, mixed evergreen forests. Rocky soils derived from gabbro, chaparral, pine woodlands.
Elevation 20–1500 m. (100–4900 ft.) 200–600 m. (700–2000 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
CA; Mexico (Baja California)
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
CA
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Ceanothus papillosus occurs in the Coast Ranges from San Francisco Bay south to the Santa Ynez Mountains, Ventura County, with disjunct populations in the Santa Ana Mountains, California, and Cerro Bola, in northern Baja California. The name C. papillosus var. roweanus was originally applied to low-growing plants with ascending to spreading, arcuate branches (H. McMinn 1939). M. Van Rensselaer and McMinn (1942) later emended the circumscription to include plants with linear leaves and retuse to truncate leaf apices, but these are found throughout the range of the species. Leaves with obtuse to truncate or retuse leaf apices also can be found on the same plant. Putative hybrids with C. integerrimus and C. oliganthus have been documented (McMinn 1944). Hybrids with C. thyrsiflorus have been named C. ×regius (Jepson) McMinn. Some putatively advanced generation hybrids have narrowly elliptic, weakly papillate leaves with obtuse apices, and sometimes have been misinterpreted as belonging to C. papillosus.

(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. 92. 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. lemmonii, C. leucodermis, C. maritimus, C. martini, C. masonii, C. megacarpus, C. microphyllus, C. oliganthus, C. ophiochilus, C. otayensis, C. palmeri, 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
Synonyms C. papillosus subsp. roweanus, C. papillosus var. roweanus
Name authority Torrey & A. Gray: Fl. N. Amer. 1: 268. (1838) 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

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