The Collaborative International Dictionary
Wiktionary
n. Any of the genus ''Ceanothus'' of North American buckthorns.
Wikipedia
Ceanothus L. is a genus of about 50–60 species of nitrogen-fixing shrubs or small trees in the family Rhamnaceae. Common names for members of this genus are California lilac, wild lilac, and soap bush. "Ceonothus" comes from a Greek word meaning "spiny plant", (keanōthos), which was applied by Theophrastus (371–287 BC) to an Old World plant believed to be Cirsium arvense.
The genus is endemic to North America, with the center of its distribution in California. Some species (e.g., C. americanus) are found in the eastern United States and southeast Canada, and others (e.g. C. coeruleus) extend as far south as Guatemala. Most are shrubs tall, but C. arboreus and C. thyrsiflorus, both native to California, can be small multi-trunked trees up to tall.
Usage examples of "ceanothus".
The arching mountain range above us was overgrown with nettle, ceanothus, pyracantha, and coastal sage scrub, the soil too poor to support many trees.
The two women filled the mammoth skull basins with water dipped from the river, and from a pouch Ayla brought with her, she sprinkled withered petals-once the pale blue sprays of saponin-rich ceanothus flowers -- into both their hands.
When the water was simmering, she scooped out a few cupfuls, put them in a wooden basin, and from her supply of herbals, added a few dried lilaclike ceanothus flowers.
Take away the irrigation systems, the drip hoses, and the sprinklers, and the vegetation would revert to its natural state- ceanothus, coyote brush, manzanita, and rolling grasses that in dry years yield a harvest of flames.
Take away the irrigation systems, the drip hoses, and the sprinklers, and the vegetation would revert to its natural state ceanothus, coyote brush, manzanita, and rolling grasses that in dry years yield a harvest of flames.
The smell of hot metal was quickly lost beneath the aromas of laurel, ceanothus and minty yerba santa crushed beneath the wheels.