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| Arctostaphylos rudis |
| Family: Ericaceae (Heath) |
| Flowers — color: white, size: 1/4", type: bell |
Shagbark Manzanita flowers resemble the Greek jug, amphorae. Small white urns or bells over 1/4" long. The flower often gets a pinkish tinge, especially in the sun. The corolla narrows towards the end, then flares in several short lobes. The pink pistil with white stigma barely reaches the bell mouth of the bloom. The exposed pistil in these photos comes from a background flower that has already shed its petals and will become a fruit.
These flowers form in small tight clusters, up to a dozen blooms. Small round 1/4" fruit turn green to red, like 'small apples' [Spanish]. The short leaf stems in the photos confirm as Shagbark Manzanita.
Habit:
Shagbark Manzanita is a spreading shrub that may expand one foot every year. The general form is a dome, reaching twelve feet tall. New stems are brown and fairly smooth.
The evergreen leaves are elliptic [come to a point at both ends, see photo]. It has a short petiole, stem, and both sides are shiny. The leaves grow perpendicularly to the its and face its end. Most branches are horizontal, so the leaf forms a vertical plane. This strategy reduces overheating when the sun is high. When the stem is not horizontal, the petiole will twist to place the leaf vertical.
These manzanita expand by 'prospective growth'. Any branch on the plant may start a new stem, even in the core or under a branch. This new stem lengthens and sets leaves. If these leaves don't meet some energy goal, because of shade from its own canopy or a neighbor, the plant cuts its losses and kills the stem. The interior of a manzanita is congested with dead twigs.
Brown bark splits, peels from branches, and remains on the branch, becoming shaggy. I have polished branches on my property to resemble the La Purisima variety, but shagginess returns over several years.
This variety grows in two small regions: the BMER neighborhood and behind the Oceano dunes at Pismo Beach. It shares habitat with La Purisima manzanita, much more common in BMER, where they share a role in the triumvirate of Maritime chaparral shrubs.
I feel that 90% of the manzanitas in my Reserve neighborhood are La Purisima. But I have twelve manzanita on my property, and eight are shagbark. I have also noticed that whenever I find a manzanita sprout, it is Shagbark. This leads me to believe that Shagbark is a much better germinator than La Purisima. Another difference is that Shagbark Manzanita has an underground basal burl (swelling) that may fire-sprout, something La Purisima can't do.