Cavedale RhônesStanford Manzanita (A stanfordiana) and Hoary Manzanita (A canescens) are now in bloom. Wildflower season has officially started here. #floranativa #flora #wildflowers #SonomaValley
Cyanocitta@CavedaleRhones Very nice!
Visions of Napa@CavedaleRhones So beautiful!
Cyper Bunk@CavedaleRhones it's interesting to me how similar madrone and manzanita flowers are to each other
@bageler They are both in the heather(Ericaceae) family. It also includes the Strawberry tree common in gardens that grows in southern Portugal in the Algarve. They actually make a brandy from the “strawberries” called Madroño. It’s a little vile :-).
@CavedaleRhones thanks for the info! I'm from the east coast and still learning a lot. here are some madrone flowers from last month
@bageler those actually look like common manzanita flowers. The Pacific Madrone has large leaves and caramel colored bark. It grows to be a large tree - like 50 plus feet. Common Manzanita is a shrub with burgundy colored bark with a maximum size of about 20 feet. They both have pretty bell shaped flowers. If you taste the fruit of a manzanita it tastes like green apple. The Madrone fruit is orange and tastes a little tropical.
@CavedaleRhones there were both growing in the same grove, I swore I traced the branch back to the tree but you're probably right