Ceanothus leucodermis

Chaparral whitethorn

Family: Rhamnaceae · Type: shrub · Native

Chaparral whitethorn is a California native shrub found in the Sierra Nevada Foothills, San Francisco Bay Area, south Coast Ranges, Transverse Ranges, and Peninsular Ranges on rocky slopes and in chaparral at elevations of 270 to 2,150 meters. Flowering from April to June, this plant produces pale blue to white flowers in raceme or panicle-like clusters 3 to 15 centimeters long. Growing as an open shrub less than 4 meters tall with rigid, thorn-like twigs in pale gray to gray-green, it has distinctive erect branches. Its alternate evergreen leaves are ovate to elliptic, 12 to 30 millimeters long, dull green on the upper surface and somewhat strigose on the underside, with entire to slightly glandular-serrate margins. The fruit is sticky, 3 to 5 millimeters wide, with a smooth to slightly wrinkled surface when dry.

Habitat: Rocky slopes, chaparral

Bloom period: Apr-Jun

Elevation: 270-2150 m

Bioregions: SNF, SnFrB, SCoR, TR, PR

California counties: Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Fresno, San Luis Obispo, Tulare, Madera, Monterey, Kern, Ventura, Stanislaus, Mariposa, Orange, San Benito, Santa Clara, Inyo, Alameda, Santa Cruz, Nevada, El Dorado, Trinity, Tuolumne, Siskiyou, Imperial, Shasta, Plumas, Sierra, Yolo, Placer, Sacramento

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