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Arctostaphylos insularis; photograph (c) Steve Matson, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Steve Matson, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2014-04-18

Arctostaphylos insularis Greene & Parry

Island manzanita

Ericaceae · California

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Arctostaphylos insularis, photograph (c) Rachel Allingham, some rights reserved (CC BY)Arctostaphylos insularis, photograph (c) Rachel Allingham, some rights reserved (CC BY)Arctostaphylos insularis, photograph (c) Rachel Allingham, some rights reserved (CC BY)Arctostaphylos insularis, photograph (c) Nick Block, some rights reserved (CC BY)Arctostaphylos insularis, photograph (c) Devon Bradley, some rights reserved (CC BY)Arctostaphylos insularis, photograph (c) Devon Bradley, some rights reserved (CC BY) 86 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Coldest month, mean nightly low
12.1°C
Feb and Mar at the habitat, not a floor; extremes not used (sea cell) CHELSA
Warmest month, mean daily high
18°C
Jul, Aug and Sep at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
552mm
6 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
18–52DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet winters: the rain comes December to March, read as a winter growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Arctostaphylos insularis is a species of manzanita known by the common name island manzanita. It is endemic to Santa Cruz Island, one of the Channel Islands of California.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Arctostaphylos insularis", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Arctostaphylos

Arctostaphylos is a genus of plants within the family Ericaceae. Many plants within the genus Arctostaphylos are also commonly called manzanitas(/ˌmænzəˈniːtəz/) or bearberries. There are 107 taxa within Arctostaphylos, 106 of which are found in the California Floristic Province. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Arctostaphylos", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (434 mm of 554 mm) falls in December to March, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 12.9 °C against a yearly mean of 14.8 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: June to September.

Rain

554 mm in the median year at the habitat, 434 mm of it December to March. Wettest month February at 132 mm, driest month July at 1 mm; 4 months under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 502 mm to 627 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 552 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 554 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 18 to 52 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 17, the highest 90th-percentile month 52).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 12.1 °C in February and March (across the grid cells of the range 10.7 °C to 12.3 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 18.0 °C in August and September (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is 12.1 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, February and March, in the median year (CHELSA); a month's mean of its nightly lows is warmer than the nights a floor is read from. The daily extremes were read at a weather cell that is mostly sea and are not used.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 55 to 68% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. No cold floor is read without a daily extremes series; the coldest month's mean nightly low named in its sentence is not one. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Arctostaphylos insularis through the yearWarmest months July, August and September, mean daily high 18 °C; coldest months February and March, mean nightly low 12.1 °C; 554 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.5°10°15°20°°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 18–52RH 55–68%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 13 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C14 / 13–1414 / 13–1414 / 13–1414 / 13–1515 / 14–1516 / 16–1618 / 17–1818 / 18–1818 / 18–1917 / 17–1816 / 15–1714 / 13–15
Night °C12 / 11–1312 / 11–1212 / 11–1212 / 11–1313 / 13–1315 / 14–1516 / 15–1717 / 16–1717 / 16–1716 / 15–1614 / 13–1513 / 11–13
Rain mm125 / 114–143132 / 116–14988 / 80–9933 / 31–379 / 9–112 / 1–21 / 0–12 / 1–2420 / 19–2349 / 46–5589 / 83–101
DLI20 / 19–2225 / 25–2735 / 35–3745 / 44–4650 / 49–5052 / 52–5250 / 50–5147 / 46–4739 / 39–4030 / 30–3222 / 22–2418 / 17–20
RH %55 / 51–5857 / 54–6060 / 56–6260 / 54–6365 / 57–6867 / 58–7168 / 58–7366 / 56–7264 / 55–6959 / 53–6355 / 50–5855 / 51–58

The daily extremes were read at a NASA POWER cell that is 24% land: neither it nor the next candidates whose coldest month's mean nightly low is within 2 °C of the median across cells sit in a POWER cell that is mostly land, and the rule reads a cold floor only from a cell that is mostly land, so none is read for this species. Nor is the coldest month's mean nightly low taken as one: it is a mean of a month's lows, not its coldest night. What that cell gave over 44 years: absolute minimum 4.8 °C, 1st-percentile night 9.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 24.0 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 13 grid cells holding the 165 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1120:1199 (33.975, -120.025). Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 13 distinct grid cells holding 165 of the 165 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1120:1199 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells, though its NASA POWER cell is only 24% land and none of the 11 next candidates within 2 °C of the median was mostly land); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 34.00_-120.000, lapse-corrected +64 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 110 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeCalifornia · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker34, -119.738 · in the densest population, 193 records (99% of those in range)
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 194 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 165 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 40 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 2 km away. 29 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 194 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Arctostaphylos insularis, photograph 1did not loadArctostaphylos insularis, photograph 2did not loadArctostaphylos insularis, photograph 3did not loadArctostaphylos insularis, photograph 4did not loadArctostaphylos insularis, photograph 5did not loadArctostaphylos insularis, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Rachel Allingham, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Nick Block, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Devon Bradley, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Hazardia detonsa Hazardia detonsa Island hazardia Photo: CC BY-SA, Brian FinzelDudleya candelabrum Dudleya candelabrum Candleholder dudleya Photo: CC BY, Casey H. RichartRibes thacherianum Ribes thacherianum Santa Cruz Island gooseberry Photo: CC BY, Cayman LanzoneHeuchera maxima Heuchera maxima Island alumroot Photo: CC BY, Trevor Van LoonDiplacus parviflorus Diplacus parviflorus Island bush monkeyflower Photo: CC BY, Matt BergerCastilleja hololeuca Castilleja hololeuca Island paintbrush Photo: CC BY, Devon Bradley

Other Arctostaphylos 50 in the reference

Arctostaphylos andersonii Arctostaphylos andersonii Santa Cruz manzanita Photo: CC BY, Isaac KroneArctostaphylos auriculata Arctostaphylos auriculata Mount Diablo manzanita Photo: CC BY, er-birds Arctostaphylos australis Australian manzanita Arctostaphylos bakeri Arctostaphylos bakeri Baker's manzanita Photo: CC BY, Alexander WentworthArctostaphylos canescens Arctostaphylos canescens Hoary manzanita Photo: CC0, author not statedArctostaphylos catalinae Arctostaphylos catalinae Santa Catalina Island manzanita Photo: CC BY, Aaron KreisbergArctostaphylos × coloradensis Arctostaphylos × coloradensis Colorado manzanita Photo: CC BY, Anders HastingsArctostaphylos columbiana Arctostaphylos columbiana Columbia manzanita Photo: CC0, author not statedArctostaphylos crustacea Arctostaphylos crustacea Brittleleaf manzanita Photo: CC BY, harriiArctostaphylos cruzensis Arctostaphylos cruzensis Arroyo de la Cruz manzanita Photo: CC0, author not statedArctostaphylos densiflora Arctostaphylos densiflora Vine Hill manzanita Photo: CC BY, Madeleine ClaireArctostaphylos edmundsii Arctostaphylos edmundsii Little Sur manzanita Photo: CC BY-SA, Nicholas Wei all 51 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Arctostaphylos insularis f. pubescens; Arctostaphylos insularis var. insularis; Arctostaphylos insularis var. pubescens; Uva-ursi insularis. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Ericaceae
Described by
Greene & Parry
Native to
California
Wild records
194 in range · 40 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-21
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 12 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (12 at a botanic garden or arboretum; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-21
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 34.00_-120.000, lapse-corrected +64 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: NASA POWER's cell is mostly sea (24% land), so no cold floor is shown
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-21
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 20 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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