Arctostaphylos morroensis Park View Manzanita

Identification

Description

Arctostaphylos morroensis, Morro Manzanita is an evergray shrub, 6 feet by eight feet, or smaller. This manzanita grows best in sun near the coast and prefers afternoon shade in the interior of the state. Growing in the inner sand dunes, San Luis Obispo county, it has thrived in the ground at the nursery and survived in containers to 14 degrees F. or less. This species survived a temperature of 0 degrees F. in December, 1990. It wouldn't complain too much if it received regular water in the interior as long as the drainage was good. We are trying to develop some better forms of this species as there are some gorgeous plants that we have had to grow for mitigation. The form that we have selected grows about 4 feet tall, with grey foliage and red bark. We had selected 7 forms of this very diverse species from a mitigation in Los Osos and only one survived our winter.