Semi-prostrate evergreen shrub to about 30 cm or so tall with thick red-brown branchlets. Leaves opposite, elliptic to oblong, 2-4 cm long, about 2.5 cm wide, leathery, pinnate-veined, margins toothed. Flower clusters axillary, deep blue to purple; spring.
var. exaltatus J.T. Howell, Navarro Ceanothus, is an erect shrub with leaves slightly smaller than the species.
California.
Source: (2002). Rhamnaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 3. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 2. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.
Ceanothus gloriosus 'Emily Brown'
Shrub to 4 m tall with dark, holly-like small leaves to 2.5 cm long. Flowers dark indigo, in clusters to 2.5 cm long.