Common Name: BUCKTHORN FAMILY Habit: [Perennial herb] shrub, tree, generally erect, often thorny. Leaf: simple, generally alternate, often clustered on short-shoots; stipules generally present, occasionally modified into spines; generally petioled; blade pinnate-veined or 1--5-ribbed from base. Inflorescence: cyme, panicle, umbel, or flowers 1 or clustered in axils or on short-shoots. Flower: generally bisexual, radial; hypanthium subtending, surrounding, or partly fused to ovary; sepals 4--5; petals 0, 4--5, generally clawed; stamens 0, 4--5, alternate sepals, attached to hypanthium top, each generally fitting into a petal concavity; disk (0 or) between stamens, ovary, thin to fleshy, entire or lobed, free from ovary, adherent or fused to hypanthium; ovary superior or +- inferior, chambers [1]2--4, 1--2-ovuled, style 1, stigma entire or 2--3-lobed. Fruit: capsule, drupe. Genera In Family: 50--52 genera, 950 species: especially tropics, subtropics some cultivated (Ceanothus; Frangula; Rhamnus; Ziziphus). eFlora Treatment Author: John O. Sawyer, Jr., except as noted Scientific Editor: Steve Boyd, Thomas J. Rosatti.
Common Name: CALIFORNIA-LILAC Habit: Shrub, tree-like or not, generally erect or mat- to mound-like. Stem: branches generally arranged like leaves; twigs thorn-like or not, generally not angled. Leaf: alternate or opposite, some clustered on short-shoots or not, deciduous or evergreen; stipules scale-like, thin, deciduous, or knob-like, corky, thick, base persistent; blade flat or wavy, tip generally acute to obtuse, margin thick (i.e., thicker than adjacent blade) or not, rolled under or not, wavy or not, entire or gland- or sharp-toothed, glands generally dark, teeth pale, alternate blade 1--3-ribbed from base, generally thin, opposite blade 1-ribbed from base, thick, firm. Inflorescence: umbel-, raceme-, or panicle-like aggregations of few-flowered clusters, axillary or terminal; pedicels white to deep blue or pink. Flower: conspicuous, generally < 5 mm; hypanthium surrounding fleshy disk below ovary base, in fruit thick, not splitting; sepals generally 5, lance-deltate, incurved, colored like petals, persistent; petals generally 5, blade hood-like, white to deep blue or pink; stamens generally 5, opposite petals; ovary 1/2-inferior, 3-lobed, chambers 3, each 1-ovuled, styles 3. Fruit: capsule, +- spheric, generally +- 3-lobed, generally smooth, 3-ridged or not, horned or not. Seed: 3, 2--5 mm. Etymology: (Greek: thorny pl) Note: Hybrids possibly common (named hybrids not recognized here), discussed in Fross & Wilken; possible hybrid forms do not key easily. eFlora Treatment Author: Dylan O. Burge & Dieter H. Wilken Reference: Fross & Wilken 2006 Ceanothus. Timber Press; Burge et al. 2015 Syst Bot 40:950--961.
Ceanothus perplexans Trel.
NATIVE Habit: Plant erect, +- open, < 3 m. Stem: ascending to erect, occasionally intricately branched, not rooting at nodes; twigs gray-brown to light gray, +- glaucous, generally densely puberulent, glabrous in age. Leaf: opposite, evergreen; stipules knob-like; petiole 1--3 mm; blade 10--20 mm, 7--17 mm wide, widely elliptic to +- round, adaxially concave, green to yellow-green, glabrous, abaxially convex, paler, glabrous to minutely strigose, tip generally acute to rounded, margin teeth generally 7--11, sharp. Inflorescence: umbel-like, generally 1--1.5 cm. Flower: white, occasionally pale blue. Fruit: 3--5 mm wide, generally smooth or +- 3-bulged distally; horns 0 or < 1 mm. Ecology: Slopes, flats, chaparral, open conifer forest; Elevation: 305--2100 m. Bioregional Distribution: e TR, PR; Distribution Outside California: northern Baja California, including Guadalupe Island. Flowering Time: Mar--May Note: Related to, perhaps part of Ceanothus pauciflorus. Synonyms: Ceanothus greggii A. Gray var. perplexans (Trel.) Jeps. Jepson eFlora Author: Dylan O. Burge & Dieter H. Wilken Reference: Fross & Wilken 2006 Ceanothus. Timber Press; Burge et al. 2015 Syst Bot 40:950--961. Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange) Previous taxon: Ceanothus pendletonensis Next taxon: Ceanothus pinetorum
Botanical illustration including Ceanothus perplexans
Citation for this treatment: Dylan O. Burge & Dieter H. Wilken 2020, Ceanothus perplexans, in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, Revision 8, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=18452, accessed on December 03, 2024.
Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) 2024, Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/, accessed on December 03, 2024.
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CCH collections by month
Duplicates counted once; synonyms included.
Species do not include records of infraspecific taxa, if there are more than 1 infraspecific taxon in CA.
Blue line denotes eFlora flowering time (fruiting time in some monocot genera).