Varying from small, prostrate shrubs in exposed places, to erect shrubs or small trees. Branches.—Strongly angled; not spiny. Leaves.—Elliptical; twelve to eighteen lines long; three-nerved; smooth and shining above. Flowers.—Bright to pale blue, rarely white; in dense clusters about three inches long, terminating the usually elongated, somewhat leafy peduncles. Capsules.—Globose; two lines in diameter; smooth, not crested; slightly lobed. (See Ceanothus.) Hab.—Near the coast, from Monterey northward into Oregon.
In the spring our chaparral-covered slopes begin to take on a bluish tinge, like the misty smoke of distant camp-fires, for which the blossoms of the California lilac are responsible. This is a graceful evergreen shrub, with rich, shining leaves, among which the abundant feathery clusters of tiny blue flowers find a charming setting. The blossoms are deliciously fragrant, filling the cool air with perfume.
This shrub is never found far away from the coast, and it reaches its greatest beauty in Mendocino County, where it becomes a tree, sometimes thirty-five feet high. Its wood is exceedingly brittle. In early days it used to be cultivated in San Francisco gardens before it was crowded out by foreign shrubs, often far less worthy.
It is known in some localities as "blue myrtle," and in others as "blue-blossom." The name "California lilac," by which it is most often known, is more generally and more appropriately applied to this species of Ceanothus than to any of the others.
The dark seeds are a favorite food of the quail.
[CALIFORNIA LILAC—Ceanothus thyrsiflorus.]
![[CALIFORNIA LILAC—Ceanothus thyrsiflorus.]](#3624944100741987669_f103.png.id-7636621388290391912.wrap-0.html.html){kind=link}