A vocabulary of landscape — a landscape of words
1469 entries
manzanita
Manzanita is a shrub of the western United States and Mexico with smooth twisting limbs in a deep polished mahogany red, small leathery evergreen leaves held edge-on to the sun, and clusters of small white or pink urn-shaped flowers in late winter. The bark peels in thin curls each summer to expose new red beneath. It grows on dry rocky slopes and is one of the defining plants of chaparral.
Etymology
The name is Spanish for little apple and it describes the fruit, which is a small round berry that ripens from green to red and does look like a miniature apple. Spanish speakers in California and the Southwest applied it, and English took it whole. The Latin genus name is Greek for bear grape, which is the same observation from a different direction and which also gives the related bearberry its name.
Notes
Many manzanitas carry a woody burl at the base and resprout from it after fire; others do not and depend entirely on seed that needs heat or charred wood to germinate. The berries were eaten fresh, dried, and made into a cider by peoples across California, and the wood, which is dense and holds its polish, is used for tool handles and for the perches sold in pet shops.