Snowbrush, Cinnamon Bush, Tobacco Bush, Shiny-leaf Ceanothus     see-a-NO-thus ve-LU-ti-nus

• Evergreen shrub, often thicket forming, 2-10 ft (0.6-3 m) tall, occassionally taller, round-topped.  Leaves alternate, simple, ovate to elliptic, 4-7 cm long, margin finely serrate, glossy green, sticky above with a spicy odor (during very warm weather), pale green and velvety below with minute hairs at first but becoming smooth, 3 prominent veins from the base.  Flowers small, white, in dense 5-13 cm long clusters (panicles).  Fruit 3-lobed, glandular, capsules, 3-4 mm, subglobose to triangular.
• Sun or partial shade.  Has a single large taproot and a deep, spreading root system so it is drought resistant.  Its root nodules are nitrogen fixing.  Not a long-lived plant, thickets begin to decline after 15 years.
• Hardy to USDA Zone     Native from British Columbia Saskatchewan south through much of the western U.S., as far east as South Dakota.
• Sometimes separated into two varieties:
  • C. v. var. hookeri - found on the west side of the Cascade Range from northern California to British Columbia.  Underside of leaf is glabrous.
  • C. v. var. velutinus - is more widespread, from British Columbia through California and Nevada east of the Cascades to South Dakota and Colorado.
• velutinus: velvey
• Oregon State Univ., Peavy Arboretum.
• Silverton, Oregon: The Oregon Garden