Big Berry Manzanita, Arctostaphylos glauca, makes a small tree.
Arctostaphylos glauca, Big Berry Manzanita has red bark.
Arctostaphylos glauca, Big Berry Manzanita, has large red berries
Arctostaphylos glauca's white flowers attract hummingbirds
Bbig Berry Manzanita, Arctostaphylos glauca
Arctostaphylos glauca, Big berry at Joshua Tree National Park
Big Berried manzanita on the north side of the San Bernardino Mountains between Lucerne and Big Bear.
Big Berry manzanita really seems to like to be between big rocks. It will grow in a granitic soil, adobe or even serpentine, but it seems to love boulders.
Description
Big Berry Manzanita, Arctostaphylos
glauca is an evergreen shrub to small tree, with red-brown bark,
7-10' foot high and wide. It will be lower and wider where there is
snow. In the Mt. Pinos area the bush grows 2-3' tall and 5-6' wide. A
gray green foliage that can look white if you make the plant happy. If
the plant gets some water or fertilizer it will be greener, but
shorter lived. Native to middle coast ranges to Palm Springs area. In
the Cuyama area it interfaces mountain climate with desert climate very
well. Big berry manzanita is native in its range with Arctostaphylos parryana, Atriplex canescens
and A. polycarpa, Juniperus
californica, Chrysothamnus nauseosus, Eriogonum fasciculatum, Rhamnus
californica, Pinus sabiniana, P. monophylla, Atriplex tridentata,
Happlopappus linearifolius, Adenostoma fasciculatum, Sambucus mexicana,
Salix lasiolepis, S. hindsiana, S. lae.,S. exigua, Quercus agrifolia,
Q. chyrsolepsis, Q. lobata , Q. alvordiana, and Q. dumosa. Needs
water for the first year, then quite drought
tolerant. Partially ripe berries make good manzanita jelly. This
manzanita is more susceptible to red leaf spot gall near the coast. Big
berry Manzanita is very effective in desert areas, stunning in the San
Joaquin Valley, and tolerates alkaline or serpentine soil well. Young, unprotected
plants made it through here this year at -4 degrees F. with the ground
frozen to 15". A one gallon plant will commonly make a 3 foot manzanita
tree in two years. 
