B15 

 MANZANITAS 



Arctosta'phylos spp. 



The manzanitas compose an important, almost entirely west- 

 American genus of about 40 species, belonging to the large and well 

 known heath family (Ericaceae). The generic name Arctostap\h/ylos 

 is from the Greek, arktos, a bear, and staphule, a bunch of grapes, 

 or berries, hence bearberry. In present usage, bearberry is usually 

 understood to mean the low, prostrate species, A. uva-ursi. Most 

 other species are known as manzanita, the Spanish for little apple, 

 as the mature berries strikingly resemble diminutive apples, espe- 

 cially in the larger-fruited species, such as great manzanita (A. 

 fflauca) and A. pastillosa. 



These plants are typically found on dry sites. They characteris- 

 tically grow in the full sunlight on well-drained soils in the open- 

 ings of coniferous forests and are especially abundant throughout 

 the arid chaparral belts of the California and Oregon foothills. 

 They flourish even in poor soils and, throughout their range, are 

 noted for their ability to invade and make good growth on coarse 

 stony, and frequently shallow soils of low fertility. 



With one exception, bearberry, which encircles the Northern 

 Hemisphere, the manzanitas are a North American, essentially west- 

 ern, group of plants. A few other species, for example, pointleaf 

 manzanita (A. pungens) and greenleaf manzanita (A. patula),grow 

 in most of the mountains of the Western States, and sometimes de- 

 velop dense stands in the Great Basin region and in the Southwest. 

 However, the members of the genus are well represented and abun- 

 dant only in California and Oregon, where greenleaf manzanita and 

 whiteleaf manzanita (A. viscida) occur profusely in the interior 

 mountains, and woolly manzanita (A. tomentosa) and hairy man- 

 zanita (A. columbiana) are common in the coastal mountains. They 

 form dense brush fields over many thousand acres either in pure 

 stands or intermixed with other shrubs. Such occupancy of large 

 areas results from the gradual spread of manzanita when the less 

 hardy and more useful vegetation is destroyed and the soil depleted 

 by periodic burning or other abuses. Most manzanitas rapidly re- 

 seed burned areas, although many species have the obvious advan- 

 tage of revegetation from root sprouts. 1 The sprouting is from a 

 woody, tuberlike swelling at or near the soil surface. Eastwood 

 manzanita (A. glandulosa), greenleaf and woolly manzanitas have 

 this character, but whiteleaf and hairy manzanitas are examples of 

 species that reestablish exclusively by seed. 



Most species are upright shrubs about 3 to 7 feet in height, al- 

 though there are some important exceptions. Pinemat (A. nevaden- 

 &ts) and bearberry are low forms with trailing stems that seldom 

 become more than a foot high. Parry manzanita (A. manzanita) 

 is probably the largest species, sometimes being over 20 feet in height 



1 Jepson, W. L. A MANUAL OF THE FLOWERING PLANTS OF CALIFORNIA. 1,238 pp., illus. 

 Berkeley, Calif. [1925.] 



