Arctostaphylos otayensis
Arctostaphylos otayensis is a species of manzanita commonly known as the Otay manzanita. It is a rare perennial shrub native to the mountains of southwestern San Diego County, California and northwestern Baja California, where it grows in chaparral habitats. The white urn-shaped flowers bloom from winter to spring.
Description
Arctostaphylos otayensis is an erect or mound-forming shrub, tall. It lacks a burl, and has twigs that are sparsely covered in short hairs and long glandular hairs. The leaves are erect, borne on petioles long. The base of the leaf near the petiole has a rounded or truncate shape. The leaves have a gray-glaucous color and are narrowly elliptic or oblong-elliptic to ovate in shape, measuring long by wide.The inflorescence is a panicle with 4 to 7 branches. The young inflorescence branches have an erect or ascending orientation, and are covered in hairs like those on the twigs. The inflorescence is covered in leaflike bracts. The flowers are attached to pedicels long. The flowers are white, with a conic to urceolate shape, and with an ovary covered in dense white hairs. The fruits are globose in shape, mostly lacking hairs, and are in diameter.