Ceanothus jepsonii

Musk brush, Musk Brush

Family: Rhamnaceae · Type: shrub · Native

Musk brush is a California native shrub found in the Klamath Ranges, northern Coast Ranges, and San Francisco Bay Area on rocky, serpentine slopes at elevations of 36 to 1,740 meters. Flowering from March to April, this plant produces blue to white flowers in compact umbel-like clusters 1 to 2.5 centimeters long. Growing with ascending to erect stems less than 1.5 meters tall, it features intricately branched twigs that are generally brown. Its opposite, evergreen leaves are distinctive, with ovate to elliptic blades 10 to 20 millimeters long, folded lengthwise, yellow-green on top, and featuring 7 to 11 spine-like teeth along the wavy margins. The fruit is a wrinkled, 3-ridged structure 5 to 7 millimeters wide, with short horns 1 to 3 millimeters long.

Habitat: Rocky, serpentine slopes

Bloom period: Mar-Apr

Elevation: 36-1740 m

Bioregions: KR, NCoR, SnFrB.

California counties: Sonoma, Mendocino, Marin, Napa, Butte, Solano, Los Angeles, Lake, Tehama, Colusa, Trinity, Plumas, Siskiyou, San Benito

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