File:California range brushlands and browse plants (1963) (20516163635).jpg

Title: California range brushlands and browse plants
Identifier: californiarangeb33samp (find matches)
Year: 1963 (1960s)
Authors: Sampson, Arthur W. (Arthur William), 1884-1967; Jespersen, Beryl S
Subjects: Browse (Animal food); Brush; Forage plants
Publisher: (Berkeley) : University of California, Division of Agricultural Sciences, California Agricultural Experiment Station, Extension Service
Contributing Library: University of California, Davis Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: University of California, Davis Libraries

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These plants are considered the true range plants, but all are relatively low in palatability. Most important are the manzanitas, huckleberries, salal, and madrone. MAN ZANITAS (Arctostaphylos) The manzanitas are evergreen woody plants that vary from prostrate ground covers to small trees. Usually they have very crooked branches with smooth purplish or red- dish brown bark that may become shreddy on old branches. The leaves are simple and alternate. The small, white or pinkish, bisexual flowers are urn-shaped, and borne in simple or compound clusters. The berry-like or drupe-like fruits consist of several hard nutlets sur- rounded by a soft pulp. Although the manzanitas are highly ornamental plants because of their warm bark color, their dense foliage, and attractive flowers and fruits, they have not as yet been singled out as popular garden shrubs. Probably the one best known in horticulture, and widely available in nurseries, is the kinnikinnick or bear berry (Arctosta- phylos uva-ursi). It is circumpolar in distribution, and in California ranges as far south as Marin County. A few growers in California are offering selected forms of taller growing ground cover tvpes of manzanitas, espe- cially forms of the native Hooker manzanita (A. hooked), and Sonoma manzanita (A. densiflora). Manzanitas are among the most common and charac- teristic constituents of the chaparral association in Cali- fornia. A recent California flora'106' recognizes 43 species and 29 varieties. These plants occupy a variety of soil types and sites, including thin soils and dry hot areas to fairly deep productive sites. A number of species crown sprout after a fire, or when the top growth is cut off, and are a prominent constituent of the "fire type" chaparral, so-called because of the rapidity with which they reclaim such disturbed areas. In contrast, the non- sprouting species are killed by a single hot fire, or when cut to the ground surface. Many areas of non-sprouting species can be transformed to vegetation more desirable for grazing. Greenleaf manzanita (Arctostaphylos patula). Branchlet showing growth habit, leafiness, and inflorescence; twig with mature fruits; flower with some petals removed exposing sepals, stamens, and pistil. A shrub of low palatability to all grazing animals. The tender young shoots and seedlings, however, are cropped in varying degrees by forag- ing animals for the first two years after a fire. Chemical studies show that the crude protein and nutritive values generally are low.
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( \\ IFORNIA RANGE BRUSHLANDS WD BROWSE PLANTS

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