Low-growing and thicket-forming to rounded and 3-feet tall shrubs have showy clusters of creamy flowers and alternate branches and leaves. Note some branches have thorny tips, and the alternate leaves have 3 prominent veins.

FLOWERS: June–August. Dense, rounded clusters of creamy flowers with 5 small, triangular petals. The dry, 3-parted capsules explode to expel the seeds.

LEAVES: Alternate, evergreen. Blades oval, 3/8–1-inch long (9–25 mm), with 3 prominent veins from leaf base, tip rounded to pointed, margin entire, surfaces green to gray-green, hairy.

HABITAT: Sandy, gravelly, loam soils, canyons, riparian areas, roadsides; yellow pine, ponderosa-oak, Douglas fir-aspen forests.

ELEVATION: 4,700–9,200 feet.

RANGE: AZ, CO, NM, SD, TX, UT, WY.

SIMILAR SPECIES: Desert Ceanothus, C. pauciflorus (C. greggii), in southern NM at lower elevations, reaches 6-feet tall, has opposite leaves with one midvein, no thorn-tipped branches, and blooms early spring.

NM COUNTIES: Statewide except eastern border counties in low- to mid-elevation habitats: Bernalillo, Catron, Cibola, Colfax, Dona Ana, Eddy, Grant, Hidalgo, Lincoln, Los Alamos, McKinley, Mora, Otero, Rio Arriba, San Juan, San Miguel, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Sierra, Socorro, Taos, Torrance, Valencia.