Arctostaphylos parryana

Arctostaphylos parryana is a species in the Ericaceae (Heath) family known by the common name Parry manzanita. This shrub is endemic to California, where it grows in the western section of the Transverse Ranges, from coastal Santa Barbara County to the San Gabriel Mountains, western Riverside County and San Diego County. This is an erect manzanita, standing on red-barked stems and reaching up to two meters in height. The leaves are bright green, generally oval in shape and pointed. The small pink-tinted white flowers are borne in densely-bunched flower clusters, but it does not produce as many flowers as some other species of Manzanita. The fruit is a rounded drupe which contains two or more seeds which have fused into one body. It does not produce a basal burl and so may be killed by fire. This is a manzanita of mid-elevation chaparral and coniferous forest ecosystems, between 3,000 and 7,500 ft. The fruit was a food of the Luiseno native people of Southern California. There are four recognized subspecies, of which ssp. tumescens is a considered rare.