Arctostaphylos nissenana

Nissenan manzanita, Nissenan Manzanita, Nissenan manzanita, Nissenan manzanita

Family: Ericaceae · Type: shrub · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 1B.2

Nissenan manzanita is a rare (CNPS 1B.2) California native shrub found in northern Sierra Nevada and central Sierra Nevada foothill regions in Placer, El Dorado, and Tuolumne counties, inhabiting open, rocky shale ridges, chaparral, and woodland at elevations of 450 to 1,650 meters. Flowering from February to March, this plant produces pale pink to white urn-shaped flowers in small, pendulous racemes. Growing as an erect shrub 20 to 150 centimeters tall with distinctive gray, shredding bark and canescent (soft, grayish-white hairy) twigs, it develops a distinctive branching structure. Its leaves are small, elliptic to oblong-elliptic, measuring 1 to 2 centimeters long, with a glaucous gray surface, entire margins, and a wedge-shaped to rounded base. The mature fruit is a small, cylindric capsule approximately 3 to 4 millimeters wide that splits open when ripe.

Habitat: Open, rocky shale ridges, chaparral, woodland

Bloom period: Feb-Mar

Elevation: 450-1650 m

Bioregions: n SN (Placer, El Dorado cos.), c SNF (Tuolumne Co.).

California counties: El Dorado, Tuolumne, Placer

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