About Arctostaphylos parryana Lemmon
Arctostaphylos parryana is an erect manzanita shrub with red-barked stems, growing up to two meters tall. Its leaves are bright green, typically oval-shaped and pointed. Small pink-tinted white flowers grow in densely clustered inflorescences. The fruit is a rounded drupe holding two or more seeds that have fused into a single structure. The 7 to 10 millimeter wide fruits of this species were used as food by the Luiseño people of Southern California. This shrub is endemic to California, growing in the western portion of the Transverse Ranges, ranging from coastal Santa Barbara County to the San Gabriel Mountains. It occurs naturally in chaparral and low-elevation coniferous forest ecosystems.
