''Arctostaphylos nummularia'' subsp. ''mendocinoensis'', commonly known as pygmy manzanita, is a subspecies of

manzanita Manzanita is a common name for many species of the genus '' Arctostaphylos''. They are evergreen shrubs or small trees present in the chaparral biome of western North America, where they occur from Southern British Columbia and Washington to O ...

. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

Mendocino County, California Mendocino County (; ''Mendocino'', Spanish language, Spanish for "of Antonio de Mendoza, Mendoza") is a County (United States), county located on the North Coast (California), North Coast of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United S ...

, where it is known from scattered occurrences in the

pygmy forest A "natural National Park in the Philippines, a UNESCO World Heritage Site file:Mount Kemiri (8187817161).jpg, An elfin forest in Sumatra's Gunung Leuser National Park Dwarf forest, elfin forest, or pygmy forest is an uncommon ecosystem feat ...

s near the coast.

Description

This is a small, mat-forming

shrub A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees by their multiple ...

growing in low mounds less than half a meter tall. It has red, shreddy bark and bristles along its smaller branches. The leaves are dark green, shiny, convex, and hairless, and rarely more than a centimeter long. The

inflorescence In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a mai ...

is a dense cluster of urn-shaped flowers with four tiny lobes at the mouth. The fruit is a cylindrical

drupe In botany, a drupe (or stone fruit) is a type of fruit in which an outer fleshy part (exocarp, or skin, and mesocarp, or flesh) surrounds a single shell (the ''pip'' (UK), ''pit'' (US), ''stone'', or ''pyrena'') of hardened endocarp with a seed ...

only a few millimeters long, containing four minute seeds.

References

External links

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Jepson Manual TreatmentUSDA Plants ProfilePhoto gallery
nummularia mendocinoensis Endemic flora of California Natural history of the California Coast Ranges Natural history of Mendocino County, California Natural history of Sonoma County, California Plants described in 1989 Flora without expected TNC conservation status {{Ericaceae-stub