Ceanothus diversifolius

Pine mat

Family: Rhamnaceae · Type: shrub · Native

Pine mat is a California native shrub found in the Klamath Ranges, northern Coast Ranges, California Ranges, and Sierra Nevada at elevations of 630 to 2,300 meters in slopes, flats, and oak-conifer forest. Flowering from April to June, this plant produces blue to nearly white flowers in small racemes or occasional umbel-like clusters. Growing as a dense, mat-like plant generally less than 0.3 meters tall, it spreads with flexible green stems that occasionally are tinged red and root at the nodes. Its alternate evergreen leaves are ovate to elliptic, 11 to 35 millimeters long, with blue-green upper surfaces and pale undersides featuring 27 to 42 glandular-serrate teeth. The compact plant forms a low, dense ground cover with short, spreading branches that create a distinctive mat-like appearance.

Habitat: Slopes, flats, oak-conifer forest

Bloom period: Apr-Jun

Elevation: 630-2300 m

Bioregions: KR, NCoRH, CaRH, SNH.

California counties: Tulare, Calaveras, Shasta, Madera, Trinity, Amador, Sierra, Modoc, Kern, Mariposa, Placer, Fresno, Yuba, Lake, El Dorado, Tuolumne, Butte, Alpine, Siskiyou, Nevada

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