Ceanothus lemmonii
Lemmon's ceanothus
Family: Rhamnaceae · Type: shrub · Native
Lemmon's ceanothus is a California native shrub found in the Klamath Ranges, northern Coast Ranges, Cascade Ranges, and northern and central Sierra Nevada in open, rocky sites at elevations of 150 to 1,650 meters. Flowering from April to May, this plant produces blue to purple-blue flowers in compact raceme-like clusters 2 to 7 centimeters long. Growing as an erect to mound-like shrub 0.5 to 1 meter tall with flexible pale green to gray-green twigs, it forms an open, spreading shape. Its alternate evergreen leaves are elliptic to oblong, 12 to 33 millimeters long, with minutely gland-toothed margins featuring 34 to 45 tiny teeth and a slightly paler undersurface densely covered in fine hairs. The smooth, three-ridged fruits are approximately 3 to 4 millimeters wide with no prominent horns.
Habitat: Open, rocky sites
Bloom period: Apr-May
Elevation: 150-1650 m
Bioregions: KR, NCoRI, CaR, n&c SN.
California counties: Tulare, Shasta, Placer, Siskiyou, Butte, Trinity, Nevada, Kern, Humboldt, El Dorado, Yuba, Lake, Tehama, Plumas, Tuolumne, Sacramento, Amador, Calaveras, Sierra
Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.