Pointleaf Manzanita, Mexican Manzanita                ark-tow-STAF-i-los PUN-jenz

• Evergreen shrub, 3-6 ft (0.9-1.8 m) tall, forms large clumps and thickets as branches often root when in contact with the soil.  Trunks mahogany colored, exfoliating, but branches are covered with pubescence and having a yellow-green to grayish appearance.  The branches of the similar looking Arctostaphylos patula (Green Manzanita) are reddish.  Leaves alternate, simple, erect, 2-4.5 cm long, elliptical to lanceolate, wedge-shpaped base, pointed tip, entire magrins, leathery, both surface are pale bluish-green due to a fine covering of hairs.  Flowers white and pinkish, about 6 mm, urn-shaped, waxy, in dense clusters.  Fruit 6 mm across, chestnut brown to terra cotta, shiny, flattened spheres.
• Sun, tolerates alkaline soils, sand, clay.
• Hardy to USDA Zone 5    Native range from Texas west to Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, south in Mexico to Oaxaca.