Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles
Recommended citation
'Ceanothus dentatus' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
This evergreen shrub, one of the most popular ceanothuses in gardens, has by some authorities been regarded as a variety merely of C. papillosus. The leaves are alternate, 1⁄5 to 1⁄2 in. long (rarely as much as 1 in.), elliptic to narrowly oblong or linear, the margins decurved and set with gland-tipped teeth; the upper surface is dark, shiny green, and rather resinous; the under-surface covered with a close grey felt; venation pinnate. Flowers of a bright blue, in roundish clusters on short peduncles. From C. papillosus it differs in the absence of the warty excrescences on the leaves to which that species owes its name, and in its smaller leaves. But in the Redwood zone of the Santa Cruz Mountains, where the ranges of the two species overlap, intermediate forms are found. C. dentatus makes a charming wall plant, and in the milder counties is hardy in the open ground. The hybrid C. × lobbianus (q.v. under C. thyrsiflorus) is sometimes cultivated as “dentatus”, but may be distinguished by its distinctly three-nerved leaves.
Synonyms
C. floribundus Hook