wordless Wednesday

Monterey manzanita ~ 12/17/11 ~ Fort Ord

best guess Monterey manzanita
best guess Arctostaphylos montereyensis
CNPS 8th Edition Inventory
Ericaceae

I believe all of our local manzanitas start blooming in the winter. The above pictured plant is the first to bloom for the season that I've noticed at Fort Ord. According to Calflora, there are 120 spp./ssp. in CA, which makes ID rather challenging. This is my best guess based on the 7 recorded spp./ssp. at Fort Ord. I'd love to hear from anyone who knows how to distinguish between the different types of manzanitas.

big berry manzanita ~ 06/09/11 ~ Pinnacles

big berry manzanita

Arctostaphylos glauca
Ericaceae

Don't these look a lot like olives? At last, here's a manzanita that I can identify! Las Pilitas Nursery says, "Partially ripe berries make good manzanita jelly." Hmm...

manzanita
Arctostaphylos sp.
Ericaceae

Before I started Nature ID, I pretty much ignored manzanitas. Hey, they're shrubs and I usually don't get too excited about shrubbery. However, I've since come to appreciate the varied beauty of manzanitas, from their amazingly artistic, maroon and grey bark to their delicate pink and white flowers. While there are 123 species records of Arctostaphylos listed on Calflora (click on the scientific name above to link to the database), I've narrowed down the species to just 7 possibilities at sandy Fort Ord. Perhaps, this year I'll look into how I can distinguish between the different species. Can anyone help me identify these rather cool shrubs?

Yadon's piperia ~ 07/25/10 ~ Manzanita Park

Yadon's rein-orchid among Hooker's manzanita
Piperia yadonii among Arctostaphylos hookeri ssp. hookeri
CNPS 8th Edition Inventory among CNPS 8th Edition Inventory
Orchidaceae and Ericaceae

After 4 unsuccessful GPS coordinate attempts to find this rare orchid and finding other things instead, we finally hit pay dirt on our 5th try. The first photo above is unusually light colored compared to other Yadon's piperia that we saw this day. For a much better picture of this pale individual, check out Native Orchids on Flickr. The low growing shrub where this orchid is found is, I'm totally guessing, Hooker's manzanita and it's classified by CNPS as a 1B.2 rare, threatened, and endangered CA native.

ps 06/06/11 - As I was looking at my new labels for endangered and threatened species, I discovered Hooker's manzanita is considered endangered in the state of CA.

pss 10/23/11 - I'm going through and adding labels for endangered and threatened species for CA . I can't find this particular manzanita on the official California Department of Fish and Game's PDF list updated this month October 2011. I haven't figured out which is correct, the PDF or Elkhorn's site (embedded in the postscript above) is correct. And, I also have not figured out how to embed links to PDFs.

manzanitas ~ 05/22/10 ~ Fort Ord

manzanita

Arctostaphylos sp.
Ericaceae

If there was one plant that differentiated Fort Ord - BLM Creekside from my other local favorite hiking places, it would be the manzanita shrub. The last picture looks very similar to a previous manzanita posts, but what can I say, I adore the artsy look of the bare bark.

I have not been able to identify these to species, but I am now utilizing the Fort Ord plants list compiled by the CNPS. In fact, the 4 pictures above may very well be 4 different species. Here, with links to CalPhotos and CalFlora, are the species listed for Fort Ord:
~ Santa Cruz Mountains manzanita (A. crustacea ssp. crinita)
~ brittle-leaf manzanita (A. crustacea ssp. crustacea)
~ Hooker's manzanita (A. hookeri ssp. hookeri)
~ Monterey manzanita (A. montereyensis)
~ Pajaro manzanita (A. pajaroensis)
~ sandmat manzanita (A. pumila)
~ shaggy-barked manzanita (A. tomentosa ssp. tomentosa)
Can anyone give me hints as to how to differentiate between these?

manzanita ~ 12/21/09 ~ Fort Ord

manzanita
Arctostaphylos sp.
Ericaceae

manzanita
Arctostaphylos sp.
Ericaceae

This is not the exact same tree as from the May 23, 2009 hike at Fort Ord. I did find it interesting that the bark of many manzanitas had started peeling within a 4 week span.

manzanita ~ 05/23/09 ~ Fort Ord

manzanita
Arctostaphylos sp.
Ericaceae

There are at least 13 manzanitas listed on Calflora for the area. I don't think I could even begin to identify this to species.