Arctostaphylos Adans. (1763), in the family Ericaceae, contains around 50 species, mostly in California.

Description Trees to 6m, or shrubs, often with smooth, red bark. The leaves are alternate, evergreen, sometimes grey or hairy. The flowers are in loose or tight bunches, tubular and usually narrowed at the mouth, white or pink. Sepals 5, rarely 4, not joined at the base; petals 5, equal, joined to form a toothed corolla. Stamens 10, the anthers with long appendages, opening by pores. Ovary superior. Carpels 2–10, fused, with numerous ovules; style straight. Pollination is by insects. The fruits are round and berry-like, usually red, with 2–10 nutlets, which are sometimes fused.

Key Recognition Features The berry-like fruits with hard nutlets; in California, the often smooth bark and bunches of tubular flowers.

Evolution and Relationships Close to Arbutus, except for the fruits with nutlets.

Ecology and Geography On rocky hills and bare, gravelly soils. Two species are found in Europe: A. uva-ursi (L.) Spreng., a prostrate mat-forming shrub found also throughout North America and Asia, and A. alpina (L.) Spreng., found in the Arctic and mountains of Europe and New England. The remainder are native from western North America to Mexico.

Comment Many Californian species, such as A. manzanita Parry, are very beautiful but seldom cultivated outside the west coast, where they are often called manzanita, from the Spanish name for the genus.