''Ceanothus fendleri'' (Fendler sceanothus, Fendler sbuckbrush, deer brier) is a species of flowering

shrub A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees by their multiple ...

native to northern

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

, west

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

and the northeastern Texas panhandle,

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

, eastern

Wyoming Wyoming ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States, Western United States. It borders Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho t ...

, and western

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state, state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Dakota people, Dakota Sioux ...

.USDA, NRCS. 2008
Profile
at the PLANTS Database (http://plants.usda.gov), 30 June 2008). National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA. Its typical

habitat In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. ''World Flora Online'' accepts 134 species-rank taxa (119 species and 15 nothospecies) of pines as cu ...

forests from in altitude.

Description

Fendler's ceanothus seldom exceeds tall. The stems and twigs are grayish green when young, reddish brown when mature, armed with spines up to long. The leaves are green and thick, and three-veined from the base. The flowers are about 2 mm across See also and white, borne in thick clusters emanating from the leaf axils, particularly on the older stems. They all open at once, so the plant is covered with bloom. This usually happens in June or July, but may be any time from April to October according to the altitude and weather. As in other ceanothuses, there are five spoon-shaped or hooded petals, each partly covering a stamen. The fruits are three-celled capsules, pink and glossy, forming an approximate rounded equilateral triangle with the stem at the center. They typically ripen in August and September. When dry these pods exhibit

explosive dehiscence Dehiscence is the splitting of a mature plant structure along a built-in line of weakness to release its contents. This is common among fruits, anthers and sporangia. Sometimes this involves the complete detachment of a part. Structures that op ...

, throwing the seeds out forcefully. The seeds are glossy dark brown, about 2 mm across.

Animal interactions

Deer are particularly fond of browsing on Fendler's ceanothus. In a study at Beaver Creek, Arizona, it was important to

mule deer The mule deer (''Odocoileus hemionus'') is a deer indigenous to western North America; it is named for its ears, which are large like those of the mule. Two subspecies of mule deer are grouped into the black-tailed deer. Unlike the related whit ...

all year and constituted up to 6.9 percent of their summer dietUrness, P.J., D.J. Neff, and R.K. Watkins. 1975. Nutritive value of mule deer forages on ponderosa pine summer range in Arizona. USDA Forest Service Research Note RM-304. Cited by Huffman, ''Fendler Ceanothus''. and might constitute even more where other forage species are less common.Huffman, ''Fendler Ceanothus'', 20 Elk also eat it, as do

North American porcupine The North American porcupine (''Erethizon dorsatum''), also known as the Canadian porcupine, is a large quill-covered rodent in the New World porcupine family. It is the second largest rodent in North America after the North American beaver (''Ca ...

s, jackrabbits, and

livestock Livestock are the Domestication, domesticated animals that are raised in an Agriculture, agricultural setting to provide labour and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, Egg as food, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The t ...

to a lesser extent. The caterpillars of '' Erynnis pacuvius'', the buckthorn duskywing, feed on this plant and other species of ''Ceanothus''.

Ethnobotany

* Some have dried the leaves as a substitute for

tea Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of '' Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of south-western China and nor ...

. * The Acoma and Laguna Pueblo people ate the fruits. * The

Navajo The Navajo or Diné are an Indigenous people of the Southwestern United States. Their traditional language is Diné bizaad, a Southern Athabascan language. The states with the largest Diné populations are Arizona (140,263) and New Mexico (1 ...

s combined this shrub and green gentian to make a medicine applied internally or externally, for "alarm and nervousness".

References

External links

EcologyPhoto gallery
of seeds {{Taxonbar, from=Q5055713 fendleri Flora of Arizona Flora of Chihuahua (state) Flora of Coahuila Flora of New Mexico Flora of South Dakota Flora of Texas Flora of Utah Flora of Wyoming Taxa named by Asa Gray Plants used in Native American cuisine Plants used in traditional Native American medicine Flora without expected TNC conservation status