Let's Talk Manzanitas! ~ with Tom Parker & Michael Vasey

Explore manzanita diversity and natural history through talks by Tom Parker and Michael Vasey, co-authors of Field Guide to Manzanitas. Parker, Professor Emeritus of Biology at San Francisco State University and an evolutionary plant ecologist, will discuss how animals shape manzanita diversity, including rodents’ role in caching fruit and creating soil seed banks, and how fire can release seed dormancy. His talk also considers the evolutionary significance of these relationships and their relevance to managing chaparral and forests with Arctostaphylos species. Vasey, who has studied rare native California plants for nearly fifty years, will share a natural history perspective on manzanitas in the Northern Sierra, drawing on topics including California’s geological past, paleobotany, endemism, fire ecology, animal mutualisms, and Indigenous tribal uses.