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Ceanothus spinosus; photograph (c) Adam J. Searcy, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Adam J. Searcy, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-04-26

Ceanothus spinosus Nutt.

Greenbark ceanothus; Greenbark Whitethorn; Redheart; Spiny Ceanothus

Rhamnaceae · California, Mexico Northwest

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Ceanothus spinosus, photograph (c) klicklo, some rights reserved (CC BY)Ceanothus spinosus, photograph (c) klicklo, some rights reserved (CC BY)Ceanothus spinosus, photograph (c) klicklo, some rights reserved (CC BY)Ceanothus spinosus, photograph (c) klicklo, some rights reserved (CC BY)Ceanothus spinosus, photograph (c) klicklo, some rights reserved (CC BY)Ceanothus spinosus, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 71 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
4.2°C
Record low -0.6 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
27°C
Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
437mm
6 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
19–52DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet winters: the rain comes December to March, read as a winter growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Ceanothus spinosus, with the common names greenbark and redheart, is a species of Ceanothus. It is native to southern California and northern Baja California, where it grows in the scrub and chaparral of the coastal mountain ranges.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Ceanothus spinosus", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Ceanothus

Ceanothus is a genus of about 50–60 species of nitrogen-fixing shrubs and small trees in the buckthorn family (Rhamnaceae). Common names for members of this genus are buckbrush, California lilac, soap bush, or just ceanothus. The genus is native to North America, ranging from Canada and the United States south through Mexico to Panama, with the center of diversity in the California floristic province of the western United States and Mexico, where around ~42 species are endemic out of the roughly ~58 species in the genus. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Ceanothus", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (326 mm of 433 mm) falls in December to March, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 12.3 °C against a yearly mean of 16.3 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: June to September.

Rain

433 mm in the median year at the habitat, 326 mm of it December to March. Wettest month February at 105 mm, driest months (2 at 1 mm); 3 months under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 298 mm to 594 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 437 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 433 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 19 to 52 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 18, the highest 90th-percentile month 53).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 4.2 °C, the absolute minimum -0.6 °C, 2 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 37.8 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 7.2 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 4.7 °C to 10.0 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 27.0 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 4.2 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 52 to 59% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -318 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Ceanothus spinosus through the yearWarmest month August, mean daily high 27 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 7.2 °C; 433 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-10°0°10°20°30°40°frost37.8° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-0.6° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 19–52RH 52–59%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 214 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C17 / 15–1817 / 15–1818 / 16–2020 / 18–2222 / 19–2424 / 21–2826 / 23–3127 / 23–3126 / 23–2923 / 21–2520 / 18–2117 / 15–18
Night °C7 / 5–108 / 5–109 / 6–1110 / 8–1212 / 11–1415 / 13–1617 / 16–1818 / 16–1917 / 15–1814 / 12–1610 / 8–137 / 5–10
Rain mm92 / 54–135105 / 69–13765 / 48–9829 / 21–428 / 4–122 / 2–31 / 1–21 / 1–35 / 4–720 / 15–2741 / 28–5264 / 43–93
DLI21 / 19–2326 / 24–2835 / 34–3744 / 43–4549 / 48–5152 / 51–5351 / 49–5247 / 46–4840 / 39–4131 / 30–3223 / 22–2519 / 18–21
RH %54 / 51–5956 / 53–6058 / 54–6257 / 52–6259 / 52–6558 / 51–6557 / 50–6556 / 49–6456 / 49–6455 / 49–6152 / 49–5853 / 49–58
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 214 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (1260 records in those cells; 1 more cell holds records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cell is left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1118:1232 (34.075, -118.375). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -0.6 °C, 1st-percentile night 4.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 37.8 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 214 distinct grid cells holding 1260 of the 1261 in-range records (1 further cell with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1118:1232 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 34.00_-118.125, lapse-corrected -318 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 77 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeCalifornia, Mexico Northwest · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker34.107, -118.729 · in the densest population, 1195 records (86% of those in range)
Kew's description“shrub” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1388 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 1260 of them in the land cells it reads, of 1261 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 281 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 56 km away. 127 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 1388 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Ceanothus spinosus, photograph 1did not loadCeanothus spinosus, photograph 2did not loadCeanothus spinosus, photograph 3did not loadCeanothus spinosus, photograph 4did not loadCeanothus spinosus, photograph 5did not loadCeanothus spinosus, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) klicklo, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0.

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Venegasia carpesioides Venegasia carpesioides Canyon sunflower Photo: CC BY, Matt BergerRibes speciosum Ribes speciosum Fuchsia-flowered gooseberry Photo: CC BY-SA, Nancy OverholtzEhrendorferia ochroleuca Ehrendorferia ochroleuca White eardrops Photo: CC0, author not statedCalochortus catalinae Calochortus catalinae Catalina mariposa-lily Photo: CC0, author not statedCeanothus megacarpus Ceanothus megacarpus Bigpod ceanothus Photo: CC BY, Melanie J. DavisLeymus condensatus Leymus condensatus Giant wildrye Photo: CC BY, Sarah Dillion

Other Ceanothus 38 in the reference

Ceanothus americanus Ceanothus americanus New Jersey tea Photo: CC BY, WF_MICeanothus arboreus Ceanothus arboreus Felt-leaf ceanothus Photo: CC BY, Matt BergerCeanothus caeruleus Ceanothus caeruleus Rhamnaceae Photo: CC BY, Neptalí Ramírez MarcialCeanothus cordulatus Ceanothus cordulatus Mountain whitethorn Photo: CC BY-SA, Nancy OverholtzCeanothus crassifolius Ceanothus crassifolius Hoary-leaf ceanothus Photo: CC0, author not statedCeanothus cuneatus Ceanothus cuneatus Buckbrush Photo: CC BY, Devon BradleyCeanothus cyaneus Ceanothus cyaneus Lakeside ceanothus Photo: CC BY, Matt BergerCeanothus dentatus Ceanothus dentatus Sandscrub ceanothus Photo: CC BY, Ryan DonnellyCeanothus divergens Ceanothus divergens Calistoga ceanothus Photo: CC BY, Peter WarnerCeanothus fendleri Ceanothus fendleri Fendler buckbrush Photo: CC BY, Matt BergerCeanothus foliosus Ceanothus foliosus Wavyleaf ceanothus Photo: CC BY, jbradburyCeanothus gloriosus Ceanothus gloriosus Point Reyes ceanothus Photo: CC BY, Peter Brastow all 39 ›

Names & registers

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Rhamnaceae
Described by
Nutt.
Native to
California, Mexico Northwest
Wild records
1388 in range · 281 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-21
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 96 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (69 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 27 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-21
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 34.00_-118.125, lapse-corrected -318 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21IPNI and POWO linked by Kew's number for Ceanothus spinosus Nutt. (the item's: IPNI 716955-1, POWO 30146751-2)
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-21
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 47 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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