ceanothus

American  

[see-uh-noh-thuhs] / ˌsi əˈnoʊ θəs /

noun

• ceanothuses
  plural

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

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ceanothus British  

/ ˌsiːəˈnəʊθəs /

noun

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

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• ceanothuses
  plural

Etymology

Origin of ceanothus

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

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

ceanothus ceanothuses

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 ● Mar. 13, 2026

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 ● Mar. 13, 2026

Well, yes, and I don’t just mean the native ceanothus shrubs, a.k.a.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 2, 2025

“Some plants, like heather, blue fescue, lavender, nandina and ceanothus, tend to not be long lived in an urban landscape,” Goetz observes.

From Seattle Times ● May 18, 2024

She planned to plant a clump of ceanothus along the approach to the swimming pool.

From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan

After a rough few years, Covarrubias is still pulling out blades of Bermuda grass among the ceanothuses and sages, but she doesn’t mind.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 12, 2022