This is a common scene in the Mediterranean climate of California: dry grass, some shrubs and pines, and an oak.
We pulled off onto the shoulder of a road and lying on its side was this skeleton of a manzanita amid the dry grass. Its cause of death remains unknown. Perhaps it died from its lack of light with the oak overshadowing it and slowly robbing it of its ability to feed itself.
The word ‘manzanita’ means ‘little apple’ in Spanish; and, indeed the manzanita’s fruit resembles an apple, if you squint…from a distance…in the twilight.
I love those manzanitas. They’re all over the mountains in San Diego county.
They are indeed. They could be the county tree of San Diego.
Having hacked through my share of acres and acres of manzanita, I’m not quite as enthusiastic about live ones. They compete against a forester’s trees really well. The dead ones are kind of pretty, though.
Chamise (Adenostoma fasciculatum) chaparral is the most common type of chaparral in California, occurring in the North and Central Coast Ranges, Sierra Nevada foothills, southern California, and northern Baja California. Whiteleaf manzanita (Arctostaphylos viscida) may codominate with chamise on some sites. Pointleaf manzanita and other associated species are infrequently in this type. Associated shrubs include Nuttall’s scrub oak, laurel sumac (Malosma laurina), white sage, (Salvia mellifera), black sage (S. apiana), sugar sumac, and eastern Mojave buckwheat (Eriogonum fasciculatum). Giant wildrye (Leymus condensatus) is a common grass associate [ 43 , 73 ].