It wasn't quite an operation under wraps but the final step is top secret.
The Chronicle tells us a crowd of park officials and workers watched Saturday as a rare shrub was moved to an area where it will have a place to flourish.
All eyes were on the flatbed truck at the Presidio in San Francisco, where experts helped guide the the Franciscan manzanita to its new home. The final resting spot for shrub, thought to be extinct in the wild until very recently, will be kept hidden so it has a chance to grow.
The shrub, also known as the San Francisco manzanita, has not been seen in the wild since the 1940s, when it was moved from city cemeteries to allow for that time's urban sprawl. But when construction crews recently cleared eucalyptus trees in the area, it exposed the only specimen known to exist in the wild.
