Description
Arctostaphylos glandulosa x glauca, or glauca X glandulosa, is an evergreen bush, usually about 4-6' tall. It has 1 1/2" gray leaves, red-brown stems. Among the toughest of the manzanitas, roots and spreads to 10' wide, usually on sandstone or clay. This would be one of the ones to try not watering in a heavily mulched garden. In southern California it is native up into the granite peaks associated with Adenostoma, Ceanothus greggii, Quercus dumosa, Cercocarpus betuloides, Cupressus forbesii and Yucca whipplei (Keeler-Wolf). In our area we have seen it on a south- facing slope mixed with Adenostoma, Ceanothus cuneatus, Quercus agrifolia, Salvia spathacea and Salvia mellifera. This species is diverse in forms and ecology. It grows primarily in the chaparral habitats discussed but it will also grow into the Yellow Pine Forest, northern California Pine Barrens and Coulter Pine Forest (Barbour & Major). Wells has had fun splitting this species and subspecies and forms. We can't fit it into the Jepson, Hoover, McMinn or Munz Keys. This form Keys fairly well into Arctostaphylos glandulosa, but it has no burl and has a Arctostaohylos glauca berry. Hoover talks about this problem in San Luis Obispo County. We previously listed this as Arctostaphylos glandulosa mollis, as when it was young it keyed to this. But then it set seed, oops, it's probably a hybrid with glauca, but shows more of the glandulosa in the form, leaf, stem and trunk.
