''Ceanothus spinosus'', with the common names greenbark and redheart, is a species of '' Ceanothus''.FLowering Plants of the Santa Monica Mountains, Nancy Dale, 2nd Ed. p. 167 It is native to southern

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

and northern

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 ...

, where it grows in the scrub and chaparral of the coastal mountain ranges.

Range and habitat

Growth pattern

''Ceanothus spinosus'' is a large treelike shrub approaching in maximum height.

Leaves and stems

Leaves have a single main vein rising from the leaf base. The thick, firm evergreen leaves are hairless, oval, and up to an inch wide, with smooth margins. The bark is smooth and olive green, giving rise to its common name. The stem is a rough-barked trunk near the base. Branches are stiff and sharp, or spiny, at the tips. ''"Ceanothus"'' means "spiny plant" in Greek, and the species name, ''"spinosus"'', means that it is even more spiny. The stipules (small leaf-like structures at the base of the leaf stem) are thin and fall off early.

Inflorescence and fruit

The shrub blooms in

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphology (biology), Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of sperma ...

s up to 15 centimeters long filled with clusters of white to pale blue flowers. The fruit is a smooth, round capsule about half a centimeter wide containing three lobes. Fruits do not have horns, as do some other members of the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

. It blooms from February to May.

References

External links

Jepson Manual Treatment — ''Ceanothus spinosus''CalFlora Database: ''Ceanothus spinosus'' (greenbark ceanothus)USDA Plants Profile: ''Ceanothus spinosus'' (greenbark ceanothus)''Ceanothus spinosus'' — U.C. Photo gallery
{{Taxonbar, from=Q5055740 spinosus Flora of California Flora of Baja California Natural history of the California chaparral and woodlands Natural history of the Peninsular Ranges Natural history of the Santa Monica Mountains Natural history of the Transverse Ranges Taxa named by Thomas Nuttall Flora without expected TNC conservation status