''Arctostaphylos insularis'' is a species of
manzanita known by the common name island manzanita. It is
endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...
to
Santa Cruz Island, one of the
Channel Islands of California.
Description
''Arctostaphylos insularis'' is a large, spreading
shrub
A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...
reaching over tall and known to exceed in width. It has waxy, reddish bark and the smaller twigs sometimes have bristly glandular hairs. The leaves are shiny green and smooth, generally oval in shape and slightly convex, and up to about long. The shrub blooms in many dense clustered
inflorescence
An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...
s of urn-shaped flowers. The fruit is an orange-brown
drupe
In botany, a drupe (or stone fruit) is an indehiscent fruit in which an outer fleshy part (exocarp, or skin, and mesocarp, or flesh) surrounds a single shell (the ''pit'', ''stone'', or '' pyrena'') of hardened endocarp with a seed (''kernel'') ...
up to wide.
Habitat
''Arctostaphylos insularis'' grows in the
chaparral
Chaparral ( ) is a shrubland plant community and geographical feature found primarily in the U.S. state of California, in southern Oregon, and in the northern portion of the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico. It is shaped by a Mediterranean c ...
,
oak woodland
An oak woodland is a plant community with a tree canopy dominated by oaks (''Quercus spp.''). In terms of canopy closure, oak woodlands are intermediate between oak savanna, which is more open, and oak forest, which is more closed. Although the ...
, and
coastal pine forest habitat of its native island.
[''Arctostaphylos insularis''.]
NatureServe. 2012.
See also
*
California chaparral and woodlands
The California chaparral and woodlands is a terrestrial ecoregion of southwestern Oregon, northern, central, and southern California (United States) and northwestern Baja California (Mexico), located on the west coast of North America. It is a ...
*
California coastal sage and chaparral ecoregion
References
External links
''Arctostaphylos insularis''.The Jepson Manual.
''Arctostaphylos insularis''.USDA PLANTS.
''Arctostaphylos insularis''.CalPhotos gallery.
insularis
Endemic flora of California
Natural history of the California chaparral and woodlands
Natural history of the Channel Islands of California
Natural history of Santa Barbara County, California
Plants described in 1887
{{Ericaceae-stub