Ceanothus pinetorum

Kern ceanothus, Kern Ceanothus

Family: Rhamnaceae · Type: shrub · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 4.3

Kern ceanothus is a California native shrub found in the Trinity Mountains and Kern Plateau in conifer forest at elevations of 1,050 to 2,750 meters. Flowering from May to June, this plant produces pale blue to blue-lavender flowers in small umbel-like clusters 1 to 2.5 centimeters long. Growing as a dense, mound-like shrub less than 1.5 meters tall with red-brown twigs, it has a spreading to erect growth habit. Its opposite, evergreen leaves are widely elliptic to nearly round, 10 to 20 millimeters long with 9 to 15 sharp teeth, green on the upper surface and paler underneath. The fruit is wrinkled, 6 to 9 millimeters wide with short 1 to 2 millimeter horns.

Habitat: Slopes, ridges, flats, conifer forest

Bloom period: May-Jun

Elevation: 1050-2750 m

Bioregions: KR (Trinity Mtns), s SNH (Kern Plateau).

California counties: Tulare, Shasta, Trinity, Inyo, Kern, Sonoma

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