Belongs To The Manzanita Family And Is A Madrone Tree?

Arbutus menziesii, also known as madroño or the strawberry tree, is an evergreen member of the heath family (Ericaceae), closely related to blueberries, mountain laurels, rhododendrons, and manzanita. Madrones occur natively in the Pacific Northwest from southern California north into British Columbia, with some populations growing at middle elevations in the Sierra Nevada. They are relicts of the Manzanita Trees/Bushes, which are in the same family but different genera.

The Pacific madrone is an evergreen tree native to the northwestern Coast Ranges of North America. It has single or multiple trunks with a showy red bark. It is easy to mistake small trees for Manzanita (Arctostaphylos sp.), but they are actually plant-family cousins. Their green two-tone leaves give them a striking appearance.

Madrones may be confused with Kings Mountain manzanita (Arctostaphylos regismontana) and brittle-leaved manzanita (Arctostaphylos crustacea ssp. crustacea). Despite their differences, Madrone is a worthy tree that can prove its magnificence when planted in a west or south-facing exposure, rarely irrigated, and left to its own devices. The bloom period for Madrones is mid-March-June.

The name “manzanita” is sometimes used to refer to species in the related genus Arbutus, which is known by that name in the Canadian area of the tree’s range but is more usually known as madroño or madrone in the United States. Both plants have unique, lovely bark, with Madrones having orange-brown bark and larger oblong leaves while Manzanitas have the characteristic dark red bark.

Manzanita is a common name for many species of the genus Arctostaphylos, which are evergreen shrubs or small trees present in the chaparral biome of western madrone. All of them fall into the family Ericaceae. Five species of manzanita (genus Arctostaphylos) are found on the University of California campus.