''Arctostaphylos viscida'', with the common names whiteleaf manzanita and sticky manzanita, is a species of

manzanita Manzanita is a common name for many species of the genus ''Arctostaphylos''. They are evergreen shrubs or small trees present in the chaparral biome of western North America, where they occur from Southern British Columbia and Washington to Or ...

Distribution

''Arctostaphylos viscida'' is a plant of

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 ...

and

coniferous forests Conifers are a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single extant class, Pinopsida. All exta ...

of some elevation. It is native to California and Oregon.

Description

It is a treelike

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 up to . The stems may be smooth or fuzzy, and are often glandular. The leaves are rounded to oval, sometimes slightly toothed or with hairs along the edges, and usually dull green on both surfaces. When in flower the shrub is packed heavily with densely bunching

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 white to pale pink flowers. The fruits are shiny red or greenish-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'') ...

s between one half and one centimeter wide. Seeds require fire for germination.

Uses

The

Miwok The Miwok (also spelled Miwuk, Mi-Wuk, or Me-Wuk) are members of four linguistically related Native American groups indigenous to what is now Northern California, who traditionally spoke one of the Miwok languages in the Utian family. The word ' ...

northern California Northern California (colloquially known as NorCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. Spanning the state's northernmost 48 counties, its main population centers incl ...

used the fruits to make

cider Cider ( ) is an alcoholic beverage made from the fermented juice of apples. Cider is widely available in the United Kingdom (particularly in the West Country) and the Republic of Ireland. The UK has the world's highest per capita consumption, ...

References

External links

Jepson Manual Treatment - ''Arctostaphylos viscida''USDA Plants Profile; Arctostaphylos viscidaEthnobotany''Arctostaphylos viscida'' - Photo gallery
viscida Flora of California Flora of Oregon Flora of the Klamath Mountains Flora of the Sierra Nevada (United States) Natural history of the California chaparral and woodlands Pre-Columbian California cuisine Plants used in Native American cuisine Flora without expected TNC conservation status {{Ericaceae-stub