Monterey manzanita

Description

Arctostaphylos montereyensis is a species of manzanita known by the common names Monterey manzanita and Toro manzanita. It is endemic to Monterey County, California, where it is known from only a few occurrences around Fort Ord and Toro County Park near Salinas. It is a plant of maritime chaparral on sandy soils. This is a shrub reaching a maximum height between one and two meters, with bristly, glandular twigs. The dark green leaves are rough, bristly, and smooth-edged, sometimes with a waxy texture. They are 2 to 3 centimeters long and round to oval in shape. The inflorescence is a dense cluster of urn-shaped flowers, and the fruit is a bristly, glandular drupe about a centimeter wide. Arctostaphylos mewukka is endemic to the Sierra Nevada of California, where it grows in the mountain chaparral in the temperate coniferous forests of the range. Arctostaphylos is a genus of plants comprising the manzanitas and bearberries. They are shrubs or small trees. There are about 60 species, of Arctostaphylos, ranging from ground-hugging arctic, coastal, and mountain species to small trees up to 6 m tall. Most are evergreen (one species deciduous), with small oval leaves 1–7 cm long, arranged spirally on the stems. The flowers are bell-shaped, white or pale pink, and borne in small clusters of 2–20 together; flowering is in the spring. The fruit are small berries, ripening in the summer or autumn. The berries of some species are edible. Arctostaphylos species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Coleophora arctostaphyli (which feeds exclusively on A. uva-ursi) and Coleophora glaucella. Manzanitas, the bulk of Arctostaphylos species, are present in the chaparral biome of western North America, where they occur from southern British Columbia in Canada, Washington to California and New Mexico in the United States, and throughout much of northern and central Mexico. Three species, the bearberries, A. alpina (alpine bearberry), A. rubra (red bearberry) and A. uva-ursi (common bearberry), have adapted to arctic and subarctic climates, and have a circumpolar distribution in northern North America, Asia and Europe.