Ceanothus sect. Scutia Commerson ex Candolle, Prodr. 2: 29. 1825; Adolia Lamarck; Blepetalon Rafinesque.

Shrubs scandent or erect, spinose or unarmed. Leaves opposite or subopposite, leathery, margin entire or inconspicuously serrulate. Flowers hermaphroditic, 5-merous, few fascicled in leaf axils or in shortly pedunculate axillary cymes, shortly pedicellate. Calyx tube hemispherical or turbinate; sepals 5, triangular. Petals deeply obcordate or bilobed, base clawed, shorter than sepals. Stamens equaling petals. Disk thin, lining calyx tube, slightly fleshy, at margin free. Ovary globose, immersed in disk, 2-5-loculed, with 1 ovule per locule; style short, undivided or 2-4-fid. Drupe obovoid-globose or subglobose, apex often with rudimentary style, base surrounded by persistent calyx tube, with 2-4 one-seeded stones, embedded in a thin, fleshy pulp at maturity. Seeds not furrowed, seed coat thin to nearly leathery.

Five species: Old World tropics and South America; one species in China.