Arctostaphylos pilosula

Santa margarita manzanita, Santa Margarita Manzanita, Santa Margarita manzanita, Santa Margarita manzanita

Family: Ericaceae · Type: shrub · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 1B.2

Santa margarita manzanita is a rare (CNPS 1B.2) California native shrub found in southern Central Coast and southern Santa Lucia Ranges near Pismo Beach in chaparral and on shale outcrops at elevations of 30 to 1,250 meters. Flowering from December to March, this plant produces pale pink to white urn-shaped flowers in small clusters with drooping nascent inflorescences. Growing as an erect shrub 1 to 5 meters tall with densely bristly twigs, it develops a distinctive branching structure with prominent woody stems. Its leaves are narrowly elliptic to round-ovate, 1 to 3 centimeters long, dark green to gray-glaucous with wedge-shaped bases and entire margins. The fruit is a depressed-spheric structure 8 to 10 millimeters wide with glabrous stones that may be variably fused or free.

Habitat: Shale outcrops, slopes, chaparral

Bloom period: Dec-Mar

Elevation: 30-1250 m

Bioregions: s CCo (Pismo Beach vicinity), s SCoRO (s Santa Lucia, La Panza ranges and s).

California counties: San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara

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