Arctostaphylos pungens

Mexican manzanita

Family: Ericaceae · Type: shrub · Native

Mexican manzanita is a California native shrub found in southern Coast Ranges, San Bernardino Mountains, Peninsular Ranges, and eastern Desert Mountains in rocky slopes, chaparral, and conifer forest at elevations of 180 to 2,300 meters. Flowering from February to March, this plant produces white to pink urn-shaped flowers in pendant, club-like clusters. Growing as an erect shrub 1 to 3 meters tall with smooth, reddish stems that become glabrous with age, it develops a distinctive branching structure. Its leaves are elliptic to lance-elliptic, 1.5 to 4 centimeters long, bright or dark green, shiny, and initially tomentose before becoming smooth, with entire margins and acute tips. The fruit is a depressed-spheric berry 5 to 8 millimeters wide with variably fused stones.

Habitat: Rocky slopes, ridges, chaparral, conifer forest

Bloom period: Feb-Mar

Elevation: 180-2300 m

Bioregions: SCoR, SnBr, PR, e DMtns

California counties: San Bernardino, San Diego, Riverside, Kern, Santa Barbara, San Benito, Ventura, Los Angeles, San Luis Obispo, Monterey, Tulare, Humboldt, Marin, Fresno, Inyo, San Francisco, El Dorado

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