Greenleaf Manzanita

Common Name: Greenleaf Manzanita
Scientific Name: Arctostaphylos patula
Size (height & diameter) English & Metric: Usually 40" (1 m) or smaller at Bryce.
Habitat: Ponderosa Pine forests
Flowering Season for the Bryce Region: March - July
Range: Oregon south to California and Arizona, east to Colorado.

 

General Description:
The most common shrub in the understory of Ponderosa Pine forests at Bryce. If you see wide spreading, green leaved shrub with simple, unlobed, smooth-edged leaves about the sized of a quarter and with smooth reddish-brown bark, this is it. The flowers are light to medium pink, urn shaped, and are produced in small clusters in spring. If the flowers remind you of heather, the resemblance is no coincidence, for manzanitas are a member of the heather or heath family. The flowers are followed by green berries which turn rusty red when ripe. The shrubs are usually two or three times as broad as they are high, and are usually not more than a yard high at Bryce.