La Cruz manzanita

Shrubs, prostrate or mat- or mound-forming, 0.1-1 m; burl absent; twigs sparsely short-hairy to sparsely hairy. Leaves: petiole to 2 mm; blade bright green, shiny, oblong-ovate, 1.5-3 × 1-2.5 cm, base auriculate-clasping, margins entire or toothed, plane, (hairy-ciliate proximally), surfaces smooth, finely tomentose, glabrescent. Inflorescences panicles, 1-3-branched; immature inflorescence pendent, (branches crowded, bell-shaped, concealed by bracts), axis 0.5-1.5 cm, 1+ mm diam., sparsely short-hairy and hairy; bracts appressed, leaflike, lanceolate to lanceolate-ovate, 5-15 mm, apex acute, surfaces hairy. Pedicels 4-5 mm, sparsely hairy. Flowers: corolla white, urceolate; ovary densely white-hairy. Fruits depressed-globose, 8-10 mm diam., glabrous. Stones distinct. 2n = 26.

Flowering winter-early spring. Maritime chaparral, grasslands on alluvial and fluvial soils; of conservation concern; 0-100 m; Calif.

Arctostaphylos cruzensis is found near the coast in southern Monterey and northern San Luis Obispo counties. It is in the Center for Plant Conservation’s National Collection of Endangered Plants.