Arctostaphylos

Arctostaphylos 

(manzanita), a genus of plants of the family Ericaceae. The genus includes sclerophyllous evergreen shrubs, shrublets, and, less commonly, small trees. The small drooping flowers are gathered into racemes or panicles. There are more than 30 species (according to other data, as many as 70), distributed in temperate and arctic zones of the northern hemisphere. The plants are most commonly found in North America. The bearberry (A. uva-ursi) is a low spreading shrub with entire leaves that are shiny above. The pink flowers have a five-parted calyx and an urceolate, sympetalous, five-toothed corolla. The fruit is a mealy red drupe. The plant grows in sandy places in pine forests, sparse larch forests, and thickets of dwarf stone pine. The leaves contain the glycoside arbutin, which is used medicinally and for tanning leather.

REFERENCE

Derev’ia i kustarniki SSSR, vol. 5. Moscow-Leningrad, 1960.