La Panza manzanita

Description

Arctostaphylos pilosula is a species of manzanita, known by the common names La Panza manzanita and Santa Margarita manzanita, that is endemic to California. Its common names comes from populations on the La Panza Range, near the town of Santa Margarita. The plant is endemic San Luis Obispo County, found in three areas: the La Panza Range, the east slope of the Santa Lucia Mountains near Atascadero, and in the San Luis Range near Pismo Beach. It grows in chaparral and closed-cone pine forest habitatss, on shale and sandstone outcrops and slopes. It is found at elevations of 30–1,250 metres (98–4,101 ft). Arctostaphylos pilosula is an erect and bristly shrub growing 1–5 metres (3.3–16.4 ft) in height. The leaves are a round, oval shape and dull and hairless in texture. They grow up to 3 centimetres (1.2 in) long. The shrub blooms in spherical white inflorescences of cone-shaped and downward facing "manzanita" flowers, each just under 1 centimetre (0.39 in) long. Its bloom period is December to March. The fruit is a reddish-brown drupe about a centimeter wide, that ripen in the summer. Arctostaphylos is a genus of plants comprising the manzanitas and bearberries. They are shrubs or small trees. There are about 60 species, of Arctostaphylos, ranging from ground-hugging arctic, coastal, and mountain species to small trees up to 6 m tall. Most are evergreen (one species deciduous), with small oval leaves 1–7 cm long, arranged spirally on the stems. The flowers are bell-shaped, white or pale pink, and borne in small clusters of 2–20 together; flowering is in the spring. The fruit are small berries, ripening in the summer or autumn. The berries of some species are edible. Arctostaphylos species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Coleophora arctostaphyli (which feeds exclusively on A. uva-ursi) and Coleophora glaucella. Manzanitas, the bulk of Arctostaphylos species, are present in the chaparral biome of western North America, where they occur from southern British Columbia in Canada, Washington to California and New Mexico in the United States, and throughout much of northern and central Mexico. Three species, the bearberries, A. alpina (alpine bearberry), A. rubra (red bearberry) and A. uva-ursi (common bearberry), have adapted to arctic and subarctic climates, and have a circumpolar distribution in northern North America, Asia and Europe.