Arbutus menziesii

Pacific madrone, Pacific Madrone

Family: Ericaceae · Type: shrub · Native

Pacific madrone is a California native shrub found in northwestern California, Cascade Range, northern Sierra Nevada Foothills, northern Sierra Nevada, Sacramento Valley, central western California, northern Channel Islands, western Transverse Ranges, San Gabriel Mountains, and Peninsular Ranges in conifer and oak forests at elevations of 100 to 1,500 meters. Flowering from March to May, this plant produces yellow-white to pink flowers less than 8 millimeters long. Growing as a tree or large shrub up to 40 meters tall with distinctive reddish bark and stout twigs, it develops a striking architectural form. Its leathery leaves are bright green on top, whitish underneath, ovate to oblong, reaching up to 12 centimeters long with entire or minutely serrated edges. The fruit is a small spherical, orange-red, slightly bumpy berry less than 12 millimeters in diameter.

Habitat: Conifer, oak forests

Bloom period: Mar-May

Elevation: 100-1500 m

Bioregions: NW, CaR, n SNF, n&ampc SNH, ScV, CW, n ChI (Santa Cruz Island), WTR, SnGb, PR

California counties: Santa Barbara, Humboldt, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, Monterey, Mendocino, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Nevada, Trinity, San Diego, Los Angeles, Sonoma, Alameda, Ventura, Yuba, Marin, Napa, Shasta, Butte, San Francisco, Orange, Siskiyou, Solano, Amador, Calaveras, Del Norte, El Dorado, Placer, Tuolumne, Contra Costa, Lake, San Benito, Sierra, Riverside

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.