Ceanothus pumilus

Siskiyou mat, Siskiyou Mat

Family: Rhamnaceae · Type: shrub · Native

Siskiyou mat is a California native shrub found in the Klamath Ranges and northern Coast Ranges on serpentine slopes, open flats, chaparral, and conifer forest at elevations of 180 to 2,290 meters. Flowering from April to June, this plant produces pale blue or lavender flowers in compact umbel-like clusters about 1 to 1.5 centimeters long. Growing as a dense, low mat-like shrub less than 0.5 meters tall with occasionally rooting stems and red to gray-brown twigs, it forms a compact ground-covering shape. Its opposite evergreen leaves are oblanceolate to obovate-oblong, 5 to 15 millimeters long, dull green on top, with a pale underside covered in short strigose hairs and thick margins with 2 to 3 teeth near the truncate tip. The fruit is approximately 4 to 6 millimeters wide with slight ridges and very short horns.

Habitat: Generally serpentine, slopes, open flats, chaparral, conifer forest

Bloom period: Apr-Jun

Elevation: 180-2290 m

Bioregions: KR, NCoR

California counties: Mendocino, Del Norte, Trinity, Humboldt, El Dorado, Plumas, Siskiyou, Nevada, Placer, Modoc, Shasta

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