Arctostaphylos stanfordiana stanfordiana Zin Manzanita

Identification

Gallery

Description

We planted this manzanita out a few years ago and forgot to label it. The sin of sins in an operation that grows so many manzanita types and species. I guess it is good that we do grow so many types as we have our own growing herbarium to compare species. (The books just do not work very well.) This plant keys to Arctostaphylos stanfordiana and forced us to define the 'Sonoma' selection as a hybrid. But the keys do not work well in the Sonoma area. The Sonoma key is by leaves; bad, bad. Oh well, the bush is a vase shaped plant with purple bark and clean dark green leaves. Not hairy or particularly sticky, nice and clean. Flowers are not dramatic, but nice. Plant for a 6 foot or so hedge of purple gray/green. This manzanita lived in a spot where everything else died. Tolerates heat, sun, too much water in spring, too little in summer. Oh, the Zin is our weekend warrior, weekday civil engineer.
Syn. Arctostaphylos stanfordiana ssp. stanfordiana.