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. Most Ceanothus are shrubs, with some species rarely tree-like while others have a short mat-like habit. Species of Ceanothus can be evergreen or deciduous, may have thorns, and also have a diverse number of petal colors ranging from cream to deep blue to pink. Some reproduce strictly from seed, while others can resprout from their roots after a fire.

Ceanothus

unknown author, USFWS · Public Domain · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
ceanothusPBDB
Sits inside
RhamnaceaePBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB, for Angiospermae

Time the record covers

At least 42 million years on record.

The record covers at least 48.07 Mya to 5.333 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 2.58 Mya.

Paleocene — about 0 of 16 occurrencesEocene — about 2 of 16 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 16 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 10 of 16 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 3 of 16 occurrencesPleistocene — about 0 of 16 occurrences57–55 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences55–53 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences53–52 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences52–50 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences50–48 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences26–24 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences24–22 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences22–20 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences20–18 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences18–16 Mya — about 1 occurrence16–14 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 2 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 2 occurrences11–8.9 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences8.9–7.1 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences7.1–5.2 Mya — about 1 occurrence5.2–3.4 Mya — about 2 occurrences3.4–1.5 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences48.07 Mya5.333 Mya57 Mya2 Mya

16 occurrences of Ceanothus on record, most of them in the Miocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

16 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

8 formations

Chloropagus — 39.58°N, 119.37°WChloropagus — 39.58°N, 119.35°WChloropagus — 39.79°N, 118.94°WCoal Valley — 39.52°N, 119.99°WCoal Valley — 39.31°N, 119.65°WMerhten — 37.61°N, 120.59°WBopesta — 35.30°N, 118.50°WRenova — 45.20°N, 112.16°WMiddlegate — 39.25°N, 117.88°WChallis Volcanics — 44.36°N, 114.22°WAllenby — 49.45°N, 120.59°W

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The named rock units Ceanothus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Ceanothus and its relatives

Miocene

Where Ceanothus and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

204 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 5 sites for Ceanothus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

11 references

Each of the 16 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Ceanothus

Credit
unknown author, USFWS
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itRhamnaceae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Linnaeus 1753