Arctostaphylos franciscana

Franciscan manzanita, Franciscan Manzanita, Franciscan manzanita, Franciscan manzanita

Family: Ericaceae · Type: shrub · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 1B.1 · Endangered

Franciscan manzanita is a rare (CNPS 1B.1) California native shrub found in northern Central Coast regions of San Francisco in serpentine outcrops and chaparral at elevations below 300 meters. Flowering from January to April, this plant produces white to pink flowers in small, pendulous panicles. Growing prostrate to prostrate-mounded, reaching 0.2 to 1.5 meters tall with gray-tomentose twigs, it forms a low, spreading structure. Its bright green leaves are oblanceolate, 1.5 to 2 centimeters long, with a wedge-shaped base and acute tip, becoming smooth and glabrous with age. The fruit is a depressed-spheric structure 6 to 8 millimeters wide, with stones that may be variably fused or free.

Habitat: Serpentine outcrops, chaparral

Bloom period: Jan-Apr

Elevation: < 300 m

Bioregions: n CCo (San Francisco).

California counties: San Francisco

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