Ceanothus tomentosus
Woolly leaf ceanothus
Family: Rhamnaceae · Type: tree · Native
Woolly leaf ceanothus is a California native tree found in northern and central Sierra Nevada, southern California coastal areas, San Gorgonio Mountains, San Bernardino Mountains, and Peninsular Ranges in chaparral and conifer forest at elevations of 15 to 1,675 meters. Flowering from February to May, this plant produces blue to white flowers in raceme-like clusters 1.5 to 5 centimeters long. Growing occasionally tree-like with open form less than 3 meters tall, it has ascending to erect stems with flexible brown to gray-brown twigs. Its alternate leaves are elliptic to widely ovate, 10 to 25 millimeters long, dark green on top with short hairs and densely woolly underneath, featuring a glandular-serrate margin with 40 to 60 teeth. The fruit is sticky, 3 to 5 millimeters wide with three ridges and no horns.
Habitat: Slopes, ridges, chaparral, conifer forest
Bloom period: Feb-May
Elevation: 15-1675 m
Bioregions: n&c SN, SCo, SnGb, SnBr, PR
California counties: San Diego, Riverside, Amador, El Dorado, Calaveras, Placer, Mariposa, Nevada, Butte, Ventura, Orange, San Bernardino, Siskiyou, Los Angeles, Napa, Alpine, San Luis Obispo
Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.