Arctostaphylos pechoensis

Identification

Description

Pecho Manzanita is a rare evergreen shrub that grows to five feet in height on shaly to sand with hardpan soil in the central coast area. A very unusual and wild plant with shiny, green to grey clasping leaves. We found an area on one of the mitigations we worked on where this manzanita interfaces with A. Wellsii and Arctostaphylos crustacea some very interesting forms and have picked the best of the bunch. Pecho manzanita has almost red new growth, a nice flower show, seems to tolerate our interior conditions well, fast growth, and looks WILD! This ain't no prissy plant, this manzanita looks native to somewhere else(Australia, New Zealand?). Kinda like a six foot silver dollar bush that can be silver, red, and green all at once. Mix with something like Arctostaphylos Carmel Sur' or Ceanothus Yankee Point' to bring out the contrast without completely clashing. This manzanita is so different that I at a loss to figure what to do but plant it out, and explain to EVERYONE that yes it is a manzanita, yes I'm sure it is a manzanita, yes I'm sure it's native and yes you can grow it. Hardy to at least 0F, tolerates drought very well, tolerates regular water fairly will. Will grow along the coast (just up from the salt spray) and up into most of the conifer forests. Tolerates clay and most soils except maybe beach sand.

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