Flora of North America species comparison

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Ceanothus spinosus

green-bark ceanothus, redheart
Habit Shrubs, sometimes arborescent, evergreen, 2–6 m. Stems erect, not rooting at nodes; branchlets green, thorn-tipped or not, round to ± angled in cross section, rigid, glabrous or sparsely puberulent.
Leaves

not fascicled;

petiole 4–7 mm;

blade ± cupped, elliptic to oblong, 11–35 × 8–29 mm, base cuneate to rounded, margins entire, apex obtuse to weakly retuse, abaxial surface pale green, not glaucous, sometimes puberulent on midribs, adaxial surface green, shiny, glabrous; pinnately veined.
Inflorescences

axillary, paniclelike, 4–17 cm.
Flowers

sepals, petals, and nectary pale blue to blue.
Capsules

4–6 mm wide, not lobed;

valves smooth, not conspicuously viscid, not or weakly crested.
2n

= 24.

Ceanothus spinosus
Phenology Flowering Jan–May.
Habitat Rocky slopes, coastal sage scrub, chaparral.
Elevation 60–900 m. (200–3000 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
CA; Mexico (Baja California)
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Like Ceanothus incanus, plants of C. spinosus are polymorphic for the presence of thorn-tipped branchlets. Putative hybrids with C. thyrsiflorus and C. oliganthus var. sorediatus have been reported (M. Van Rensselaer and H. McMinn 1944).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 12, p. 86.
Parent taxa Rhamnaceae > Ceanothus > subg. Ceanothus
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. papillosus, C. parryi, C. parvifolius, C. pauciflorus, C. perplexans, C. pinetorum, C. prostratus, C. pumilus, C. purpureus, C. roderickii, C. sanguineus, C. sonomensis, C. thyrsiflorus, C. tomentosus, C. velutinus, C. verrucosus
Name authority Nuttall: in J. Torrey and A. Gray, Fl. N. Amer. 1: 267. (1838)
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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