Arctostaphylos luciana

Santa lucia manzanita, Santa Lucia Manzanita, Santa Lucia manzanita, Santa Lucia manzanita

Family: Ericaceae · Type: shrub · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 1B.2

Santa lucia manzanita is a rare (CNPS 1B.2) California native shrub found in the southern Coast Ranges near San Luis Obispo County, specifically southeast of Cuesta Pass, growing on shale outcrops and slopes in coastal upland chaparral at elevations of 100 to 800 meters. Flowering from January to March, this plant produces pale pink to white flowers in small, pendulous racemes with leaf-like bracts. Growing as a small shrub or tree 2 to 3 meters tall with sparsely hairy twigs, it forms a distinctive rounded shape with multiple stems. Its leaves are ovate to nearly round, 2 to 4 centimeters long, with a glaucous blue-gray surface that becomes smooth with age, clasping at the base and featuring an obtuse tip with entire margins. The fruit is a depressed spherical berry 6 to 12 millimeters wide, with stones that may be variably fused or free.

Habitat: Shale outcrops, slopes, upland chaparral near coast

Bloom period: Jan-Mar

Elevation: 100-800 m

Bioregions: SCoRO (se of Cuesta Pass, San Luis Obispo Co.).

California counties: San Luis Obispo, 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.