Ceanothus velutinus

Snowbrush

Family: Rhamnaceae · Type: shrub · Native

Snowbrush is a California native shrub found in the Klamath Ranges, northern California Coast Ranges, high Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, northern San Francisco Bay Area, Warner Mountains, and eastern Sierra Nevada in open, rocky slopes at elevations of 90 to 3,050 meters. Flowering from April to July, this plant produces white flowers in panicle-like clusters 3 to 8 centimeters long, creating delicate branching inflorescences. Growing up to 6 meters tall with erect stems and flexible green to red-brown twigs, the plant develops an open, spreading habit. Its evergreen leaves are widely elliptic to ovate, leathery and aromatic, with shiny green surfaces, measuring 33 to 75 millimeters long and 13 to 55 millimeters wide, featuring minutely gland-toothed margins with 90 to 150 tiny teeth. The fruit is brown, sticky, and 3 to 4.5 millimeters wide, often wrinkled and without distinctive horns.

Habitat: Open, rocky slopes

Bloom period: Apr-Jul

Elevation: 90-3050 m

Bioregions: KR, NCoRO, CaRH, SNH, n SnFrB, Wrn, SNE (exc W&ampI)

California counties: Humboldt, Mendocino, Modoc, Sierra, Mono, Siskiyou, Lassen, Plumas, Shasta, Inyo, Trinity, Alpine, Nevada, El Dorado, Butte, Placer, Sonoma, Tulare, San Bernardino, Del Norte, Napa, Marin, Santa Cruz, Tehama, Tuolumne, Fresno, San Diego, Riverside, Monterey, Lake

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