DISTRIBUTION AND OCCURRENCE
SPECIES: Adenostoma sparsifolium | Red Shank 



GENERAL DISTRIBUTION : 
Red shank occurs in discrete, disjunct populations in southern
California and Baja California Norte.  It is distributed along the South
Coast and Transverse ranges from south-central San Louis Obispo County
to Los Angeles County, where distribution shifts inland to interior
regions of the Peninsular Ranges and the Sierra San Pedro Matir
[7,17,26,30,32,36].  The southern edge of red shank's distribution is
about 150 miles (240 km) beyond the Alta-Baja California border.  The
total range of the species is approximately 300 miles (480 km) in extent
(latitude 30 deg 30 min N. to latitude 35 deg 30 min N; longitude 115
deg 40 min W. to longitude 120 deg 30 min W.) [30].  The largest red
shank populations are in the San Jacinto and Santa Rosa mountains and
in interior valleys of Riverside and San Diego counties [17].


ECOSYSTEMS : 
   FRES34  Chaparral - mountain shrub
   FRES35  Pinyon - juniper


STATES : 
     CA  MEXICO


ADMINISTRATIVE UNITS : 
     SAMO


BLM PHYSIOGRAPHIC REGIONS : 
    3  Southern Pacific Border


KUCHLER PLANT ASSOCIATIONS : 
   K033  Chaparral
   K035  Coastal sagebrush


SAF COVER TYPES : 
   239  Pinyon - juniper


SRM (RANGELAND) COVER TYPES : 
NO-ENTRY


HABITAT TYPES AND PLANT COMMUNITIES : 
Red shank is a dominant species in chamise, mixed, redshank, and desert
chaparral, coastal sage scrub, and singleleaf pinyon-Utah juniper (Pinus
monophylla-Juniperus osteosperma) woodland [30].  Red shank chaparral
primarily occurs in the San Jacinto and Santa Monica mountains, where it
often forms open, nearly pure stands [3,16,19].  Because it grows as
tall as 18 feet (5.5 m), it dominates chaparral overstories [15,36].  It
is a common associate in chamise chaparral [30], and red shank and
chamise codominate on some sites [26].  Red shank-populated chaparral
merges with desert vegetation on its eastern edges and with coastal sage
scrub and annual grassland on other margins [15].

Associated overstory species of red shank include Eastwood manzanita
(Arctostaphylos glandulosa), desert ceanothus (Ceanothus greggii),
bigpod ceanothus (C. megacarpus), spiny ceanothus (C. spinosus),
hoaryleaf ceanothus (C. crassifolius), hairy ceanothus (C. oliganthus),
birchleaf mountain-mahogany (Cercocarpus betuloides), California
buckwheat (Erigonum fasciculatum), California scrub oak (Quercus
dumosa), laurel sumac (Malosma laurina), and chaparral yucca (Yucca
whipplei) [3,15,46].  Herbaceous associates include slender oat (Avena
barbata), foxtail brome (Bromus rubens), twining brodiaea (Brodiaea
pulchella), showy penstemon (Penstemon spectabilis), and phacelia
(Phacelia brachyloba) [31].

Publications describing red shank-dominated communities are as follows:

California chaparral [16]
Terrestrial natural communities of California [19]
A vegetation classification system applied to southern California [36]
The vascular plant communities of California [44].

Related categories for Species: Adenostoma sparsifolium | Red Shank