''Ceanothus oliganthus'' is a species of

shrub A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...

in the family

Rhamnaceae The Rhamnaceae are a large family of flowering plants, mostly trees, shrubs, and some vines, commonly called the buckthorn family. Rhamnaceae is included in the order Rosales. The family contains about 55 genera and 950 species. The Rhamnaceae h ...

known by the common name hairy ceanothus or hairy-leaf ceanothus.Flowering Plants of the Santa Monica Mountains, Nancy Dale, 2nd Ed., 2000, p. 167 The variety of this species known as jimbrush (var. ''sorediatus'') is sometimes treated as a separate species.

Habitat and range

It occurs in

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

and

Baja California Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...

,Jepson Herbarium
/ref> where it occurs through all of the coastal mountain ranges in dry habitat such as

chaparral Chaparral ( ) is a shrubland plant community and geographical feature found primarily in the U.S. state of California, in southern Oregon, and in the northern portion of the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico. It is shaped by a Mediterranean c ...

Description

This is a large, erect shrub approaching 3 meters in maximum height.

Leaves and stems

The

stipules In botany, a stipule is an outgrowth typically borne on both sides (sometimes on just one side) of the base of a leafstalk (the petiole). Stipules are considered part of the anatomy of the leaf of a typical flowering plant, although in many speci ...

(small leaf-like structures on the stems at the base of the leaf stem, are thin and fall off early. The evergreen leaves are alternately arranged and may be up to 4 centimeters long. They are dark green on top, paler and hairy on the underside, and are edged with glandular teeth. Leaves have 3 main veins rising from the base. Leaves have a toothed edge. The leaf is covered with short, soft hairs on the top. Branchlets are flexible, not stiff.

Inflorescence and fruit

The

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

is a cluster or series of clusters of blue or purple flowers. The fruit is a capsule which may be hairy or not, depending on variety. The fruit is not horned. It blooms April to May.

References

External links

Jepson Manual eFlora (TJM2) treatment of ''Ceanothus oliganthus''''Ceanothus oliganthus'' — U.C. Photo gallery
oliganthus Natural history of the California chaparral and woodlands Natural history of the California Coast Ranges Natural history of the Peninsular Ranges Natural history of the San Francisco Bay Area Natural history of the Santa Monica Mountains Natural history of the Transverse Ranges Flora of Baja California Plants described in 1838 Taxa named by Thomas Nuttall Flora of Baja California Sur {{Rhamnaceae-stub