Arctostaphylos regismontana

Kings mountain manzanita, Kings Mountain Manzanita, Kings Mountain manzanita, Kings Mountain manzanita

Family: Ericaceae · Type: shrub · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 1B.2

Kings mountain manzanita is a rare (CNPS 1B.2) California native shrub found in western San Francisco Bay region in the northern Santa Cruz Mountains on granite and sandstone outcrops, in chaparral and conifer forest edges at elevations of 150 to 780 meters. Flowering from January to March, this plant produces pale pink to white flowers in pendant panicles with glandular-hairy branches. Growing as an erect shrub 2 to 5 meters tall with distinctively glandular-sticky twigs, it develops a complex branching structure. Its leaves are oblong-ovate, 3 to 6 centimeters long, pale green and boat-shaped, with a clasping base and upcurved acute tip, becoming less hairy as they age. The fruit is a sticky, depressed-spheric structure 6 to 8 millimeters wide, with stones that may be variably fused or separate.

Habitat: Granite, sandstone outcrops, edge of conifer forest, chaparral

Bloom period: Jan-Mar

Elevation: 150-780 m

Bioregions: w SnFrB (n Santa Cruz Mtns).

California counties: San Mateo, Santa Cruz, Alameda

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