Talk:Manzanita

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

	Manzanita is within the scope of WikiProject Plants, an attempt to better organize information in articles related to plants and botany. For more information, visit the project page.
???	This article has not yet received a quality rating on the quality scale.
???	This article has not yet received an importance rating on the importance scale.

This article is part of WikiProject California, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to California on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can edit this article, or visit the project page to join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.

[edit] Redirecting to Manzanita

Part of Cal Poly Pomona's California Flora Project Biologycpp 21:27, 21 May 2006 (UTC)

My reference books (primarily "The Jepson Manual", ISBN 0-520-08255-9, or Jepson online, which is offline tonight) considers Manzanita to be a common name for all of Arctostaphylos. The bearberries are considered manzanitas, look at ITIS for example. Common names are a bit tricky, more so than scientific names, but I don't see why Arctostaphylos and Manzanita should have seperate pages. There are subgenera and sections of Arctostaphylos mentioned in the Jepson Manual, but the difference is not manzanita vs bearberry. I did merge some of Arctostaphylos into manzanita before doing the redirect.

Note that each species which has a common name under the ITIS listing mentions manzanita.

If Manzanita is a subgenus, please specify the subgenus. Are you referring to the Arctostaphylos or Micrococcus subgenus? Perhaps there are other subgenera outside of California. My reference only covers California species. I have added a small amount of information on subgenera and sections to the Arctostaphylos page, but it would be nice for the manzanita and bearberry pages to be consist with the biological pages.

At the very least, the manzanita page needs to mention that manzanita is a common name which applies to all Arctostaphylos. One of the problems with common names is that their usage differs, and may be inconsistent.

Today is the first time I've ever heard anyone apply the name 'manzanita' to Arctostaphylos uva-ursi. Try talking about 'manzanita' to a botanist working in e.g. the Scottish Highlands, and you'll get blank looks, mention 'bearberry', and he'll know exactly what's meant. I suspect the same would apply in Canada and the eastern US. - MPF 23:14, 25 Nov 2004 (UTC)

That's the problem with common names. In the Western US, uva-ursi is just another kind of manzanita, and is better known by its species name than as "bearberry". In addition to the scientific literature, (like the Jepson manual), The Western Garden Book, which is pretty much the bible for amature horticulture in the western US, lists it as a manzanita, although it does mention its common name.

I just edited this section, to change the inaccurate discussion on landscaping usage, and (before reading this discussion) referenced uva ursi. It is difficult to talk intelligently about the manzanitas as a group while arbitrarily segregating some of them as a "subgenus." Is there any scientific reference justifying the subgenus categorization?

[edit] manzanita bark

why is the bark on a manzanita plant so unusual--a mix between dead wood and shiny maroon covering? thanks69.167.57.22 09:15, 26 November 2005 (UTC)gregg

Many species of tree will be partially dead throughout their lifetimes. Some of the oldest trees in existence (several thousand years old) are mostly dead snags. Some of the biggest trees in existence (like sequoia) are mostly dead wood (the heart of the tree dies after a few hundred years, so that it no longer needs nutrients, yet remains firm (which is why heart wood of giant trees is excellent building material, it takes a long time to rot)). Manzanita happens to have a very high contrast between the live bark and dead flesh, as well as having the dead sections mostly as external branches and sections. Also, it only takes a few years for the dead bark to change color. -- As for why the bark is maroon, good question. It also sheds very oddly. Splarka (rant) 13:08, 27 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Manzanita Trailer Park

There once was "temporary student housing" at Stanford University that wasn't very temporary. But they were built only for temporary use (Quickly and cheaply, if I understand correctly).

Jorge Cham's comic mentions a first hand account of the park (which may have some artistic license taken with it, but apparently not much according to the other articles I found) and shows why I bring this up at all. you may have to email him for more info, because I don't know if it's 23 years or 25. (If the halls were opened right away, if the trailer park was still needed, etc. would make a difference in that.)

Another reference, mentioning the year they were constructed (1969), and that, when a replacement dorm came, very few charities and organizations were willing to take the trailers free of charge when Stanford offered them...

This article refers to it, and talks about its replacement.

--M Scott 09:12, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

Probably not worth mentioning here. If at all, it could be mentioned in Stanford University, maybe. Splarka (rant)