Ceanothus dentatus

Dwarf ceanothus

Family: Rhamnaceae · Type: shrub · Native

Dwarf ceanothus is a California native shrub found in the Central Coast, Santa Cruz Mountains, and northern South Coast Ranges in sandy coastal bluffs and slopes at elevations of 5 to 1,500 meters. Flowering from March to June, this plant produces deep blue flowers in small raceme-like clusters about 1.5 to 3 centimeters long. Growing as a dense shrub 0.5 to 1.5 meters tall with ascending to erect stems and flexible brown to gray-brown twigs, it forms a compact and intricate shape. Its alternate evergreen leaves are elliptic to oblong-oblanceolate, dark green on top, pale green underneath, with a distinctive rolled margin and measuring 4 to 16 millimeters long and 2 to 8 millimeters wide. The fruit is three-ridged and 2.5 to 4 millimeters wide, with a truncate to notched leaf tip.

Habitat: Sandy substrates, coastal bluffs, slopes

Bloom period: Mar-Jun

Elevation: 5-1500 m

Bioregions: CCo, SnFrB (Santa Cruz Mtns), n SCoRO.

California counties: Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Santa Cruz, Napa, Ventura, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Marin, Alameda, Mendocino

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