ceanothus

American  

[see-uh-noh-thuhs] / ˌsi əˈnoʊ θəs /

noun

plural

ceanothuses

1. any North American shrub or small tree of the largely western genus Ceanothus, having clusters of small white or blue flowers.

---

ceanothus British  

/ ˌsiːəˈnəʊθəs /

noun

1. any shrub of the North American rhamnaceous genus Ceanothus: grown for their ornamental, often blue, flower clusters

---

Etymology

Origin of ceanothus

< New Latin (Linnaeus) < Greek keánōthos a species of thistle

Example Sentences

The seedlings and saplings are mostly knee-high to chest-high and mixed with thickets of ceanothus and other post-fire brush growing amid the true giants that stand dead among them.

From Los Angeles Times

Hanson, who spends much of his life crawling through underbrush to count trees, plunged ahead into stands of chest-high ceanothus, pointing out sequoias camouflaged in the pervasive post-fire brush.

From Los Angeles Times

“The question everybody wants answered we can’t answer because we don’t have the data to do it,” said Adrian Das, research ecologist with the Western Ecological Research Center, as he stood amid the ceanothus.

From Los Angeles Times

When nearly 300 tour-goers visited the garden in the spring, they were treated to bright orange California poppies, cobalt-blue ceanothus flowers — a fan favorite, the couple says — yellow bush sunflowers and the bold pink flowers of hummingbird sage.

From Los Angeles Times

We also got suggestions from a charming subreddit called r/Ceanothus, which I recommend heartily to anyone with an interest in California native plants.

From Los Angeles Times