An evergreen shrub 6 to 14 ft high, sometimes a small tree to 25 ft; bark smooth, reddish brown; branchlets pale green, glabrous and glaucous (but downy and sometimes glandular in var. puberula J. T. Howell). Leaves ovate to oblong-elliptic, to 13⁄4 in. long, truncate or slightly cordate at the base, on stalks to 1⁄3 in. long, greyish green and glabrous on both sides. Flowers urn-shaped, white or pinkish, borne in spring in broad, short, rather pendulous panicles. Fruit brownish, large for the genus (to 3⁄5 in. in diameter), with the nutlets united into a solid stone.
Native of S. California. A handsome species, but tender.
A. pringlei var. drupacea Parry – An erect, aromatic shrub to 14 ft high with densely hairy-glandular young branchlets. Leaves grey-green, to 11⁄2 in. long, oblong-ovate to elliptic, finely glandular-downy on both sides. Flowers rose-coloured, in sessile racemes or panicles, on pink stalks and subtended by bracts of the same colour. Probably not in cultivation and perhaps tender, but its flowers are said to be among the most beautiful of the genus.