Carried by 22 nurseries
View Availability at NurseryData provided by the participants of the Consortium of California Herbaria
View additional distribution information on the Jepson eflora
Arctostaphylos refugioensis is a species in the Heath family (Ericaceae) known by the common name Refugio manzanita. It is endemic to Santa Barbara County, California, where it can be found along the immediate coastline, including the vicinity of Refugio State Beach, and into the Santa Ynez Mountains. It is a plant of the coastal chaparral on sandstone soils. This is a shrub reaching at least two meters tall and known to exceed four meters in maximum height. Its branches are covered in long, gland-tipped bristles and a dense foliage of oblong greenish to deep red leaves. Each leaf is dull, waxy, and often bristly in texture, smooth or toothed along the edges, and up to 4.5 centimeters long. The shrub flowers in winter in clusters of cone-shaped or urn-shaped flowers each up to a centimeter long. The fruit is a spherical to oval red drupe with a pointed end, measuring at least a centimeter long. Despite being from a mild climate area, it seems to do well in cultivation in hotter and colder inland areas.
Shrub
7 - 13 ft Tall
7 ft Wide
Rounded
Fast
Evergreen
None
Pink, White
Winter, Spring
Deer resistant
Full Sun
Low, Very Low
Max 2x / month once established
Moderate
Tolerates cold to 10° F
Fast, Medium
Sandstone.
Soil PH: 6.0 - 7.0
Prune to shape in late summer to avoid infection
By seed or cuttings
Sandstone outcrops (not beach sand) in chaparral within 20 miles of the coast, below 2, 500 ft. in Santa Barbara County
Chaparral
Chamise (Adenostema fasciculatum), Coyote Brush (Baccharis pilularis), Ceanothus species, Mountain Mahogany (Cercocarpus betuloides), Bush Sunflower (Encelia californica), Yerba Santa (Eriodictyon spp.), Seacliff Buckwheat (Eriogonum parvifolium), Golden Yarrow (Eriophyllum confertiflorum), Laurel Sumac (Malosma laurina), Redberry (Rhamnus crocea), Currants (Ribes spp.), Sage (Salvia spp.), and Woolly Bluecurls (Trichostema lanatum).
Butterflies and moths supported
0 confirmed and 27 likely
Western Avocado Leafroller Moth
Amorbia cuneana
Orange Tortrix Moth
Argyrotaenia franciscana