2016 - Robert's adventures in the Northern Sierra Nevada - California

[Robert]

For a short time I struggled through a maze of giant White Leaf Manzanita, Arctostaphylos viscida ssp. viscida. Many of the plants must have been ancient. They were at least 6 meters tall, maybe a bit more. The giant, polished, and twisted trunks were amazingly beautiful.



In other places not much of anything grew at all.



With closer examination, these areas turned out to be the perfect crevice garden. Dudleya cymosa was one of a number of species growing out of the tight crevices in the rock. I will want to return in the spring and see the full spectrum of species growing in these crevices.



After zig-zagging up and down and around on this mountainside, I worked my way up to the ridge crest. I am certainly not the only person wandering around this mountain. Weather instruments? Most likely.

[Robert]

At this point I had exhausted most of my time. I had seen thousands of White Leaf Manzanitas, Arctostaphylos viscida ssp. viscida, and not one El Dorado Manzanita, Arctostaphylos nissensana.



I decided to end this outing with some photographs of the nascent inflorescence of Arctostaphylos viscida ssp. viscida.

An upright inflorescence. Notice the appressed bracts that hide the dormant flower buds.



Other plants had a semi-pendant inflorescence.



..... As well as the usual pendant nascent inflorescence. Sooner or later most if not all of the inflorescence become pendant. I can't say I have ever seen an upright fruiting cluster.

[Robert]

At this point I was ready to call it a day, however after hiking back to the Outback I found that I still had a tiny amount of time remaining before I needed to return. There was one last site I could check on that was only a short distance away. As the fishermen say "just one more cast!" I had to go check this site out.

..... And there they were El Dorado Manzanita, Arctostaphylos nissenana.



Not just a few but a whole hillside of them. This was quite interesting. This site consisted of the same slate formation as I had just visited and was less than a kilometer away. The whole colony of El Dorado Manzanita was surrounded by White Leaf Manzanita, Arctostaphylos viscida ssp viscida. Within the colony there were a few very stunted White Leaf Manzanita. I was rushed as I looked around and did not see any signs of hybridization between the two species. At some point I have more thoughts on this.....



Part of this site had burned too and there were abundant seedlings.



Arctostaphylos nissenana is an obligate seeder, they not not have burls. I was very pleased to see them reproducing well.



Arctostaphylos nissenana is a low spreading species. Most of the plants grew about 25 + or - cm tall and maybe 50 to 90 cm wide. The foliage is the same glaucous-gray as White Leaf Manzanita, however the stem are not glabrous, but have many long hairs. The inflorescence bracts are leaf-like.

[Robert]

Another semi-close up of this beautiful manzanita.



Another characteristic that distinguishes this species is its bark. It is gray-brown and somewhat shredding. Most, but not all, Manzanitas species have polished reddish bark.



A beautiful gnarled trunk.



Here one can see the same slate rock strata.



And one last quick view before I needed to leave.

Not bad for a quick outing. I was very pleased.

Until next time......

[Maggi Young]

Wow! What great outing - and for a couple of minutes there I thought you were in Anne S' ("astragalus") garden!

[Robert]

Wow! What great outing - and for a couple of minutes there I thought you were in Anne S' ("astragalus") garden!

Maggi,

I think it will be even better in the spring when everything is in bloom - and less than a hour away!

[Maggi Young]

Maggi,

I think it will be even better in the spring when everything is in bloom - and less than a hour away!

 Well that's a happy prospect!!

[GordonT]

Robert, I, too am looking forward to revisiting these sites via your reports next year! The manzanitas are really striking. I remember seeing my first one in the wild, while hiking Mount Daniel on BC's sunshine coast. I am guessing it was Arctostaphylos columbiana. The smooth contorted coppery-brown branches were spellbinding.

Your focus on the genus had me snooping around the web, and I found an article that might be of interest to others: http://www.pacifichorticulture.org/articles/arctostaphylos-for-pacific-northwest-gardens/

Thank you so much for sharing your treks and experience with us!

[Robert]

Thank you so much for sharing your treks and experience with us!

Gordon,

From our base in Sacramento it is now much easier to travel to the north coast range. There are a considerable number of Arctostaphylos taxa to see in this region. And I have to admit there are many other species that I am interested in such as Calochortus, Iris, Ceanothus, Erythronium to name a few that can be found in the northern coastal mountains. Right now I am limited to what I can do in a one day journey. Actually not a bad situation. I would rather carefully get to know a region before moving on. I certainly have my hands full right now with a number of projects in El Dorado County, California. Snow Mountain is high on my priority list.

I agree, there is some good information on the Genus Arctostaphylos out there. I found a graduate paper at our public library concerning Arctostaphylos myrtifolia, one of our local endemic species. There was another article on the lineages of Arctostaphylos using the ITS region of the nuclear genome (seems to be a standard procedure). This had some information that may, or may not, be useful if one is interested in breeding Manzanitas. Very fascinating information, however there seemed to be some some information that appeared to be incongruent with field observations. Certainly more study on my part in necessary.

In the end, I hope all of this can translate into beautiful gardens and the inclusion of all of us.

Thank you for your comments!

[johnralphcarpenter]

Trond,

I know what you mean! Sometimes having all-wheel-drive can get one stuck even worse than with 2 wheel drive. I had a Toyota 4x4 for 25 years. I always carried a 50 foot wire cable and a long chain with hooks to get out of difficult positions. I did not have a winch, however a come-along worked just as well. I have no plans to use the Subaru as I did the Toyota 4x4! With my Toyota 2x I was always compromised with mud or other difficult road situations that the Subaru can handle easily. Also light snowfall, especially on pavement, will be easy with the Subaru. At times when I have needed to rent an auto I always requested a Subaru Outback because they fit my needs so well. 

Excellent car - we have had one for six years now.

[Robert]

Ralph,

Up at the farm it seems half the folks have Subaru of some sorts, then this is snow country. 

[ArnoldT]

Robert:

Well I can say they do well here in the "wilderness" of the NY metro area.

A fiend of mine calls them the Urban assault vehicle.

[johnralphcarpenter]

Do you know many fiends?

[ArnoldT]

Well, there's certainly one fiend who resides in the middle of Manhattan.

[Robert]

Robert:

Well I can say they do well here in the "wilderness" of the NY metro area.

A fiend of mine calls them the Urban assault vehicle.

.....the Urban assault vehicle. Oh my!    Does that make El Dorado County, California (maybe Maine, etc. too) a war zone? 

I guess the traffic of the U.S.A. holiday this week does create a freeway war zone in our part of California. I will be staying home this week... I dislike the rude and dangerous driving in urban California. No botanical outing this week.       I look forward to my next outing and will miss getting out. Until the next outing.......