Arctostaphylos gabilanensis

Arctostaphylos gabilanensis is a rare species of manzanita known by the common name Gabilan manzanita.

Arctostaphylos gabilanensis

Critically Imperiled  (NatureServe)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Ericales
Family: Ericaceae
Genus: Arctostaphylos
Species:
A. gabilanensis
Binomial name
Arctostaphylos gabilanensis
V.T.Parker & M.C.Vasey

Distribution

It is endemic to California, where it is known only from two disjunct populations in the Gabilan Range on the border between Monterey and San Benito Counties. It was described to science in 2004 from the type specimen collected near Fremont Peak in 2002.[1]

The plant can be found in chaparral habitat. The plant is considered vulnerable because it is rare, with one population containing about 30 individuals and the other spanning about 1000 hectares but widely spaced.[2]

Description

Arctostaphylos gabilanensis is an erect shrub reaching a bushlike one meter to a treelike five meters in height. It is coated in medium or dark red bark, the small twigs with fuzzy hairs.

The waxy gray-green leaves are up to 3.5 centimeters long by 2.4 wide. The blades are oval and auriculate (with an earlobe-shaped lobe on either side of the petiole).[1]

The inflorescence is a panicle of white or pink conical or urn-shaped flowers each 6 to 8 centimeters long. The fruit is a spherical reddish-brown drupe 1 to 1.5 centimeters wide.

References
  1. Parker, V. T. and M. C. Vasey. (2004). Arctostaphylos gabilanensis (Ericaceae), a newly described auriculate-leaved manzanita from the Gabilan Mountains, California. Madroño 51:3 322.
  2. The Nature Conservancy
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