Arctostaphylos patula
Arctostaphylos crustacea
green-leaf manzanita
brittle leaf manzanita
petiole 7–15 mm;
blade bright green (lightly gray-green if short-hairy), shiny, widely ovate to orbiculate, 2.5–6 × 1.5–4 cm, base rounded, truncate, or slightly lobed, (not clasping), margins entire, plane, surfaces smooth, glabrous or, rarely, short-hairy.
bifacial in stomatal distribution;
petiole 2–5 mm;
blade dull light green abaxially, shiny dark green adaxially, oblong-ovate to oblong-lanceolate, 2–5 × 1.5–2.5 cm, base truncate to ± lobed, margins entire (sometimes toothed), sometimes cupped or ± revolute, abaxial surface smooth, glabrous or sparsely or finely tomentose, adaxial surface smooth, ± glabrous (sometimes densely tomentose).
panicles, 2–8-branched;
immature inflorescence pendent, branches spreading, axis 1.5–3 cm, 1+ mm diam., hairy with golden glands on tips of hairs or short-hairy and eglandular;
bracts appressed with incurved tips, scalelike, deltate, 4–6 mm, apex acuminate, surfaces usually densely tomentose with golden glands on tips of hairs, rarely short white-hairy and eglandular.
panicles, 2–8-branched;
immature inflorescence pendent, rarely ascending, branches spreading, axis 1–2.5 cm, 1+ mm diam., sparsely to densely short-hairy, sometimes glandular, or long-hairy eglandular;
bracts not appressed, proximal leaflike, distal often scalelike, from scalelike and awl-like to broadly leaflike and deltate to lanceolate, 3–8 mm, apex acute, surfaces glabrous or hairy.
2–7 mm, glabrous or white-hairy.
2–5 mm, glabrous or short-hairy.
corolla mostly pink, conic to urceolate;
ovary glabrous or white-hairy.
corolla white, conic to urceolate;
ovary white-hairy or glabrous.
depressed-globose, sometimes subglobose, 7–10 mm diam., glabrous.
depressed-globose, 6–10 mm diam., glabrous or sparsely hairy.
distinct.
distinct.
= 26.
Arctostaphylos patula
Arctostaphylos crustacea
Arctostaphylos patula is abundant and widespread in western North America as a dominant in montane chaparral, pine forest gaps, and high-elevation arid-steppe and canyon-land environments. Populations throughout western North America are characterized by twigs and inflorescence parts covered with relatively short hairs tipped with golden glands. In the central to northern Sierra Nevada, mixed with the widespread form are individuals that are eglandular and have a cover of relatively short, whitish hairs on the stems and inflorescences. Similarly, throughout most of its range, A. patula is nonsprouting after fire, and in areas characterized by winter snow cover it layers and creates broad, low mounds. In much of California, it typically sprouts after fires from obscure and flattened burls, forming circles of erect sprouts.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Subspecies 6 (6 in the flora).
Arctostaphylos crustacea comprises populations from central California and the Channel Islands in areas moderated by summer maritime fog. One subspecies is widespread, from the San Francisco Bay area to the Channel Islands; the others are limited in distribution.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Twigs, abaxial surface of leaf blades, and immature inflorescence axes densely glandular- hairy | subsp. subcordata |
1. Twigs, abaxial surface of leaf blades, and immature inflorescence axes glabrous or hairy, sometimes glandular (not densely glandular-hairy) | → 2 |
2. Twigs short-hairy and with longer hairs | → 3 |
2. Twigs usually short-hairy (without longer hairs) | → 4 |
3. Leaf blades ± glabrous or sparsely short-hairy abaxially. | subsp. crustacea |
3. Leaf blades densely short-hairy abaxially (and sometimes adaxially). | subsp. crinita |
4. Leaf blades tomentose abaxially. | subsp. insulicola |
4. Leaf blades glabrous abaxially | → 5 |
5. Ovaries glabrous. | subsp. eastwoodiana |
5. Ovaries densely hairy. | subsp. rosei |
CA
OR
WA
Flora NW
PNW Herbaria
SW CO Wildflowers
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
