Arctostaphylos virgata

Marin manzanita, Marin Manzanita, Marin manzanita, Marin manzanita

Family: Ericaceae · Type: shrub · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 1B.2

Marin manzanita is a rare (CNPS 1B.2) California native shrub found in northern Central Coast and northwestern San Francisco Bay regions of Marin County in sandstone and granite outcrops within chaparral and conifer forest at elevations below 500 meters. Flowering from December to February, this plant produces pale pink to white flowers in pendulous, glandular-hairy racemes. Growing erect to 1 to 5 meters tall with bright green, slightly shiny branches that are short- and long-glandular-hairy, it forms a distinctive upright shape. Its leaves are ascending and overlapped, narrowly oblong-ovate to lance-oblong, 3 to 5 centimeters long, with truncate to slightly lobed bases and entire, flat margins. The fruit is a sticky, depressed-spheric structure 6 to 8 millimeters wide, covered in glandular hairs.

Habitat: Sandstone, granite outcrops in chaparral, conifer forest

Bloom period: Dec-Feb

Elevation: < 500 m

Bioregions: n CCo, nw SnFrB (Marin Co.).

California counties: Marin

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