Ceanothus arboreus

Feltleaf ceanothus, Feltleaf Ceanothus

Family: Rhamnaceae · Type: tree · Native

Feltleaf ceanothus is a California native tree found in the Channel Islands at elevations of 60 to 580 meters in chaparral and oak woodland habitats. Flowering from February to May, this plant produces blue flowers in compact raceme-like clusters 5 to 8 centimeters long. Growing as a multi-stemmed tree up to 7 meters tall with flexible brown twigs, it forms an attractive woodland shrub with distinctive foliage. Its thick, leathery leaves are widely ovate to elliptic, dark green on top, pale green underneath, with 35 to 65 gland-tipped serrate teeth along the margins. The fruit is a sticky, black, three-ridged capsule approximately 5 to 8 millimeters wide.

Habitat: Slopes, chaparral, oak woodland

Bloom period: Feb-May

Elevation: 60-580 m

Bioregions: ChI

California counties: Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Mateo, Ventura, Alameda

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.