Santa Lucia manzanita

Shrubs or trees, erect, 2-3 m; burl absent; twigs sparsely short-hairy. Leaves: petiole to 2 mm; blade glaucous, dull, ovate to ± orbiculate, 2-4 × 1.5-2.5 cm, base distinctly lobed, auriculate-clasping, margins entire, plane, surfaces smooth, appressed gray-canescent to finely tomen-tose, glabrescent. Inflorescences racemes, simple or 1-branched; immature inflorescence pendent, (branches crowded, concealed by bracts), axis 0.5-1 cm, 1+ mm diam., sparsely short-hairy; bracts not appressed, leaflike, linear-lanceolate, 5-10 mm, apex acuminate, surfaces canescent. Pedicels 5-10 mm, glabrous. Flowers: corolla white, conic to urceolate; ovary glabrous. Fruits depressed-globose, 6-12 mm diam., glabrous. Stones distinct. 2n = 26.

Flowering winter-early spring. Chaparral; of con-servation concern; 300-500 m; Calif.

Arctostaphylos luciana is found on siliceous shale east of Cuesta Pass in the southern Santa Lucia Mountains of San Luis Obispo County.