Arctostaphylos gabilanensis

Arctostaphylos gabilanensis

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

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

Distribution

the Arctostaphylos Gabilanensis is endemic to California, where it resides only in two disjunct places in the Gabilan Range, on the border between Monterey and San Benito Counties. The plant was made known to science in 2004 from a type specimen collected near Fremont Peak, originally in 2002.[1]

The plant can be found in the chaparral habitat and is considered quite rare. The Plant's population in one habitat contains about 30 individual plants,in the other it spans over approximately 1000 hectares but the plants are 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. 1 2 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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