Dale & Bee,

Many years ago I lived in Avery on Rt. 4. I was very familiar with Manzanita bushes; even cleared a few. I remember the bright mahogony colored stumps and lower branches but can not for the life of me recall the thorns that you have mentioned. Are there more than one variety, one type with thorns and another without?

Jim

I've been reading that young mesquite often has thorns and sometimes is mistaken for manzanita. However - manzanita has that red bark that's almost impossible to mistake for anything else.

There were 3 distinct specimens of interest on the Smith Peak Experience.

Specimen one definitely is Manzanita... the red bark kind... if it gets big it's impossible to wack thru..
doesn't really bend much... you can walk on it... but ... you should have your gaiters on...
Number 2 was your basic low lying shrubation. Easy to walk thru and over...
Specimen number 3 was also low lying but has some nice thorns on it...
Number 3 is the main reason I never wear short pants...

Bee blanketed them all as Manzanita... I questioned this but she sounded fairly confident
in her Manzanita knowledge...

So the big question is ... what exactly were number 2 and 3?
Or.. what are the other low lying shrub named in the "chaparral" locales of the Sierra?

My head really hurts looking at this stuff... so many varieties...
even Manzanita w/ red bark... Whiteleaf, Greenleaf, Pinemat... argh!

Need a Dummies Guide to the REALLY COMMON PLANTS!

I'll be looking at my field guides tonight.

i've never looked it up, but someone told me a long time ago, that it is one of the hottest burning woods.

Madrone has a scaly red bark.

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The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.
-- Carl Sagan

There are over 40 species of Arctostaphylos (Manzanita) native to the West Coast...it may take me a bit to sift thru them..

To be continued...

Interesting, it seems that there IS something to the statement about no thorns: none of the 15 species that i have sifted through have thorns. The one that Goatie mentions as being un-movable is called Arctostaphylos "Common Manzanita" -- yup that's its name, common manzanita!

I am trying to find the low growing 18"-2' plant that formed the cushion, was all light green, and had thorns on top of green thorns.

To be continued...






Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/21/2009 06:24PM by Bee.

In the "Laws Field Guide" it show 3 manzanitas like I said above only.
All red barky.

I think one of the "in question" shrubs was Mountain Whitethorn.

So... the answer is that Manzanita does not have thorns.
Need to take better pictures of the shrubation to make a better assesment.

Maybe Mountain Ash is the other???

Mountain Ash is a 15-30' tree...

Felt that deep didn't it?

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Old Dude

Quote
Bee
Mountain Ash is a 15-30' tree...

You were not in over your head?

Maybe it WAS mountain ASH!!

Is there kinnikinnick in yosemite? that is a low growing manzanita (little apple) but no thorns.

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The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.
-- Carl Sagan