Nevada Division of Forestry and University of Nevada Cooperative Extension publish Bulletin 06-01 for the Lake Tahoe Basin and vicinity. FireApproved publishes 83 exact rated owners as basin context across Nevada and California. Rough estimates are not statewide or site ratings.
2. Why this plant is relevant here
State distribution
Documented in AZ, CA, CO, MT, NM, NV, OR, UT, WA.
Native range
Current cited native range in AZ, CA, CO, MT, NM, NV, OR, UT, WA.
Introduced / established
USDA hardiness
Documented minimum 4a; no upper limit is documented.
3. Legal, ecological, and broader status
Legal-list status
Seed-list status
Reported invasive here
Broader regional context
Federal context
How to read this page
The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.
Native and introduced range evidence
These are exact U.S. botanical-area records from the cited range source. Native and
introduced describe biogeographic relationship, not fire performance or planting approval.
Doubtful and extinct rows stay visible but do not count as current presence.
The lossless worldwide derivative is retained once in the research corpus; object pages repeat only exact U.S. areas needed by the local lens. The JSON twin carries the same page assertions.
Plant hardiness evidence
These values describe the plant source. Your ZIP zone comes from the separate 2023 USDA
Plant Hardiness Zone Map. Whole-zone values stay whole-zone, and a single unresolved value
is not treated as a tolerance range. Different source boundaries stay separate: overlapping
statements are compared independently, while only ranges with no shared zone are called a conflict.
Source location: PlantCharacteristics record 65007, Temperature, Minimum (°F).
Fire ecology context
The Forest Service's Fire Effects Information System synthesizes how this exact taxon responds
to wildland fire and occurs in fire-shaped ecosystems. This literature context does not rate a
maintained landscape plant, does not change the computed classification above, and is not a
substitute for building-adjacent placement guidance.
USDA Forest Service FEIS · review ARCPAT
Arctostaphylos patula, greenleaf manzanita
Immediate fire effect. Fire generally top-kills plants that have a lignotuber; plants without one may be killed rather than resprout. (Immediate Fire Effects)
Fuels and condition. FEIS describes the species' physical and chemical characteristics as producing a highly flammable shrub. (Fire Adaptations)
Postfire response. Postfire establishment can occur from fire-scarified seed and, in some populations, from lignotuber sprouts. (Plant Response to Fire)
Source taxon: Arctostaphylos patula · exact scientific name ·
review written 2007-08 · page updated 2026-03-25 ·
source record
Where its sources say to plant it
Placement rules below use each source's own distances or named zones, tied to its rating.
They are not interchangeable with the directory's current Zone 0 guidance.
Home Landscaping Guide for Lake Tahoe and Vicinity: Fire Hazard column: high [tahoe-guide-2006] (with its avoid rating)
The evidence
Grouped by what each source concluded. Primary evidence rated the plant itself
(a lab, field program, or original curation); corroboration compiled or
republished another source's rating and resolves to its root lineage.
Table 1's Fire Hazard column prints “high” for this taxon. The guide calls the rating a rough estimate of potential flammability, not a result of scientific trials. Its footnote says plants that turn brown often become high fire hazards and tells readers to mow grasses and forbs when they begin to turn brown.
Listed without a rating (18)Corroboration (18 rows from 1 source)
18 cited rows from this source; its identity, lineage and tier are stated once.
Primary study Shafizadeh1977: Shafizadeh, F., Chin, P. P., & DeGroot, W. F. (1977). Effective heat content of green forest fuels. Forest Science, 23, 81-89.
Shared row context: Combustibility measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying yes; device thermal analyzer; site Shafizadeh1977-1; sampling ND.
