BOTANICAL AND ECOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS
SPECIES: Arctostaphylos columbiana | Hairy Manzanita 



GENERAL BOTANICAL CHARACTERISTICS : 
Hairy manzanita is a native, evergreen, erect shrub.  Mature plants are
from 2.5 to 16.6 feet (0.8-5.0 m) high with a broadly spreading oval
crown supported by a single trunk.  Hairy manzanita lacks a lignotuber
[21,24].  Bristly, glandular branchlets distinguish its foliage [20].
The often viscid fruit is a drupe containing 4 to 10 irregularly
separable nutlets [24].


RAUNKIAER LIFE FORM : 
   Phanerophyte


REGENERATION PROCESSES : 
Sexual:  Hairy manzanita seed falls beneath the parent plant or is
disseminated by animals.  The seedcoat requires scarification prior to
germination, which is accomplished either in the stomach of animals or
by fire [21].  Fire best scarifies the seedcoat and results in greater
rates of germination [30].  Charred wood leachate may further stimulate
germination of fire-scarified seed [1,19].

Vegetative:  All manzanitas are capable of layering [5], but hairy
manzanita probably layers only rarely because of its erect growth habit.
It does not sprout from the root crown [1,10].


SITE CHARACTERISTICS : 
Hairy manzanita grows in a variety of soil textures and parent
materials.  Soil pH typically ranges from 5.0 to 7.0 [2,13,34].  It can,
however, tolerate extremely acid soils; it grows in dwarfed form in
podsol soils of the pygmy forest of Mendocino County, California.  At a
pH of 2.8 to 3.9, soils of the pygmy forest are some of the most acidic
known [17].

Hairy manzanita occurs at elevations up to 2,500 feet (762 m) in
California [24], up to 3,750 feet (1,143 m) in Oregon [30,34], and up to
4,950 feet (1,509 m) in Washington [34].




SUCCESSIONAL STATUS : 
Facultative Seral Species

Hairy manzanita is an initial or secondary colonizer of disturbed plant
communities.  It is commonly found in communities which develop after
removal of the forest overstory, such as the vine maple-parsley fern
community.  Hairy manzanita persists through later seres in the
understory of open-canopy forest.  It does not tolerate deep shade, and
does not occur in closed canopy old-growth forest [11,20,21,27,29].


SEASONAL DEVELOPMENT : 
Hairy manzanita flowers from March through May in California [24].  In
Linn County, Oregon, plants flower in early June and set fruit from mid-
to late June [27].  Seeds are dispersed from late summer until the
following spring [3].

Related categories for Species: Arctostaphylos columbiana | Hairy Manzanita