Manzanitas as a whole ecosystem; their place in the ecology of California

On Saturday, October 15th, 2022 at 4 pm, the Friends of San Pedro Valley Park welcomed back Tom Parker, Professor of Biology, Emeritus, San Francisco State University for his presentation entitled, “Manzanitas as a whole ecosystem; their place in the ecology of California.”  Tom tells us: “While I’ve given a few talks on manzanitas, I’ve been impressed by how they seem to be the center of a lot of interconnected interactions. I’ll use this talk to pull all those previous ideas together with new information about how plants are the center of a world of interactions. Given that chaparral is rapidly becoming a despised vegetation just because it burns, I think it’s important to emphasize its critical role as a part of interacting systems. There are plenty of human benefits to this system, which along our coast and in the Sierra is dominated by manzanitas. Lots of pictures, and of their pretty relatives as well.”