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Arctous rubra
Also called Red Fruit Bearberry, Red Manzanita
Arctostaphylos rubra is a species of flowering plant in the heath family and the genus Arctostaphylos, the manzanitas and bearberries. Common names include red fruit bearberry, alpine bearberry, arctic bearberry, red manzanita, and ravenberry. It is native to Eurasia and northern North America from Alaska through most of Canada to Greenland. There is also one population in the contiguous United States, located in the Absaroka Range of Wyoming.
This shrub is a member of many plant communities in Arctic and alpine climates. It occurs in subalpine forests and tundra. It is a common member of forest ecosystems dominated by spruces such as white spruce and black spruce. It may be a dominant species in several types of habitat, including balsam poplar (Populus balsamifera ssp. balsamifera) floodplains and tundra shrublands in Alaska. It is dominant or co-dominant with Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmannii) and cup lichen (Cladonia cariosa and C. pyxidata) in Jasper National Park; white spruce and mountain alder (Alnus viridis ssp. crispa) in the Mackenzie Delta; and white spruce along the Alaska Highway in Yukon. In the lower latitudes the plant grows at higher elevations, especially near the timberline. Its maximum latitude and elevation is thought to be increasing due to climate change. It has a disjunct population in Wyoming, its only known population in the Lower 48.
The fruit is edible for humans but is not a favored food. It has been utilized by the Gwich'in people and the Inuit.
Santa Cruz manzanita · Mt. Diablo manzanita · Baker's manzanita · Cerro Bola manzanita · Hoary manzanita · Santa Catalina Island manzanita · Hairy manzanita · Santa Rosa Island manzanita · Brittleleaf Manzanita · La Cruz manzanita · Vine Hill manzanita · Little Sur manzanita
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Arctostaphylos rubra by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
