Sunday, June 19, 2016

Very blue

Flowers so blue that the name of the shrub just had to be "blue blossom".

Ceanothys thyrsiflorus, aka California lilac. Native to California and Oregon, common here.

The lilacs have bloomed and faded. Now, the blue blossom takes over and will bloom through June. The blue is more intense, the tree denser than the lilacs. But they don't perfume the neighbourhood like a lilac does. 

A few other tidbits of information about Ceanothus thyrsiflorus: the blue flowers can be used to make a green dye (though why green rather than blue?), and all parts of the plant can be crushed and worked into a lather to use as a gentle soap, as the plant contains saponins. (From UBC Botanical Garden)

And butterflies and bees love it, too!

1 comment:

I'm having to moderate all comments because Blogger seems to have a problem notifying me. Sorry about that. I will review them several times daily, though, until this issue is fixed.

Also, I have word verification on, because I found out that not only do I get spam without it, but it gets passed on to anyone commenting in that thread. Not cool!

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