Arctostaphylos uva-ursi

Bear-berry, kinnikinnick, Kinnikinnick

Family: Ericaceae · Type: shrub · Native

Bear-berry is a California native shrub found in northern coastal California, central Sierra Nevada highlands, and central coastal California in rocky outcrops, slopes, stabilized dunes, closed-cone conifer forest, and chaparral at elevations generally below 100 meters. Flowering from January to June, this plant produces white to pink urn-shaped flowers in small racemes that hang delicately. Growing prostrate to mounded, typically 10 to 50 centimeters tall with a burled or spreading form, it spreads across ground surfaces with woody, flexible stems. Its leaves are distinctive, spreading and oblanceolate to obovate, 1 to 2.5 centimeters long, dark green above and light green underneath, with entire margins often slightly cupped. The fruit is a spheric, glabrous berry 6 to 12 millimeters wide, characteristic of the Arctostaphylos genus.

Habitat: Rocky outcrops, slopes, stabilized dunes, closed-cone conifer forest, grassy coastal headlands, chaparral, subalpine forest

Bloom period: Jan-Jun

Elevation: generally < 100 m (2400-3300 m in c SNH)

Bioregions: NCo, c SNH (above Convict Lake, Mono Co), CCo

California counties: Monterey, Mono, Humboldt, Mendocino, Marin, Los Angeles, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, Del Norte, Sonoma, Tuolumne, El Dorado, Placer

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