Rare plant found in yard of Parker home

by Jen Houghton

A potential one-of-a-kind Richmond District manzanita is one step away from gaining landmark status and official protection, 16 years after property owner Rose Hillson unknowingly uncovered the rare plant.

Landscaping the yard was quite an undertaking when Hillson and her husband first bought their house on Parker Avenue in 1992.

"It was so overgrown that high noon was like midnight out there," Hillson said. "There were about 7 or 8 mature trees all covered in ivy."

Many plants and trees were cleared out of the yard due to poor health along with enough ivy to fill 20 - 30 paper grocery bags. Though at the time she had no idea what the strange twisting tree was, Hillson chose to keep, and nurture, a manzanita they found buried under the ivy.

Aside from its aesthetic charm and the wildlife it brought into the yard, the tree was of little concern to her until, 10 years after it was uncovered, Hillson's brother casually identified the mysterious plant as a manzanita, which spawned her endeavor into researching exactly what kind it was.

Hillson recruited the help of San Francisco State University professors and biologists, including Dr. Tom Parker, who also writes for the Jepson Manual, a highly-regarded guide to plants and trees.

After four years and multiple DNA tests, the tree in Hillson's yard is proving to be a unique species, possibly the only one of its kind in the world. Scientists have acknowledged that it could be an entirely new species.

"The plant in Rose Hillson's back yard has no genetic relationship to any manzanita historically known from San Francisco," Parker said.

"So far, with all the testing, they have only found one parent gene, which isn't even found in San Francisco," said Hillson. "They don't know how to classify it."

There are 106 varieties of manzanita in the world, 95 of which are found in California. San Francisco is home to a unique one, the well-known Presidio Manzanita, which is officially protected because it grows on federal property.

Hillson says the manzanita should be protected.

Earlier this year, Hillson learned of the Landmark Tree Program through friends and applied for landmark status for the manzanita in her yard. If the tree is granted landmark status, it will be officially protected against public harm, such as spontaneous pruning by utility workers.

The Urban Forestry Council unanimously voted to recommend the manzanita to the SF Board of Supervisors for the Landmark Tree Program in April despite much debate on whether or not the manzanita is a "tree" by definition, thereby qualifying for the program.

The loose definition by which the ordinance determines a tree is "any large perennial plant having a woody trunk or trunks, branches and leaves," said council member Mike Boss. He thinks Hillson's manzanita, at more than seven feet tall with woody trunk and leaves, fits the bill.

"I'm trying to save the life of this plant. I would like this manzanita to get a little more protection and this was the only avenue I had," Hillson told the council.

Council member and SF Planning Department member AnMarie Rodgers agrees.

"I believe in substance over form, and I think this woody plant has the substance to be landmarked," she said.

The council agreed to tighten the definition in the ordinance at a later date if necessary and recommended the manzanita to the Board of Supervisors based on its strong qualifications to be a landmark, including its extreme rarity and botanical importance by being a possible new species, its neighborhood appreciation, historical affiliation, and wildlife value.

If there is room on the agenda, the Board of Supervisors will vote on whether or not to grant the manzanita landmark status at an early meeting in May, giving the tree official protection while scientists continue performing tests to classify its species.

"There are still a few other tests we need to conduct, but the bottom line is that it's likely that this plant may be either a species with an incredibly new range extension, or a new type of manzanita," Parker said.