Arctostaphylos crustacea

Brittle leaf manzanita

Family: Ericaceae · Type: shrub · Native

Brittle leaf manzanita is a California native shrub found in rocky chaparral habitats, growing one to three meters tall with a prominent basal burl. Flowering from January to March, this plant produces pink to white urn-shaped flowers in pendulous panicle clusters with branches two to eight millimeters long. Growing with erect stems that are glabrous or slightly hairy, it develops a distinctive woody structure with spreading branches. Its leaves are dark green above and light green below, oblong-ovate, two to five centimeters long, with entire margins that are occasionally slightly toothed and often cupped or rolled. The fruit is a depressed-spheric structure six to ten millimeters wide, with stones that may be variably fused or free.

California counties: Santa Barbara, San Mateo, Contra Costa, San Luis Obispo, Santa Cruz, Santa Clara, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Alameda, Monterey, Napa, San Benito, Marin, Mendocino

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