By Cynthia Houng
Illustration from James M. Hutchings's 1888 book, In the Heart of the Sierras.
When the snow begins to melt, a strange, brilliant red plant makes its appearance. Growing in singles or clusters, with fleshy, sword-shaped stalks like an asparagus, the snow plant forms a dazzling contrast to the drab brown leaf litter.
Without chlorophyll for photosynthesis, the snow plant is a saprophyte--it feeds on decomposing leaf litter, much like a mushroom or other fungus. The plant's botanical name, Sarcodes sanguinea, means "the blood red flesh eater," an apt description for this unusual saprophyte. Snow plants below to the heath family, but most heath plants make an honest living through photosynthesis.
At maturity, a snow plant ranges between 12 and 20 inches in height. After flowering, the plant sets seed and the stalk slowly dries to a dark reddish-brown. The snow plant was first described in English in 1851 by John Torrey, from a specimen collected by John C. Fremont.
Native to the western United States, the snow plant is distributed between the Siskiyou Mountains (Oregon) and the Sierra San Pedro Martir (Baja California). In the Sierras, snow plants appear in early spring, and bloom from May through July. Broadly distributed in California, they are often found growing in communities dominated by yellow pines, red firs, or lodgepole pines, and are most common between 4,000 and 8,000 feet. Snow plants appear to form symbiotic relationships with the mychorrhizal fungi that occur in pine forests.
Today, the snow plant is uncommon and should not be disturbed. In California, Sarcodes sanguinea is a protected species, and seed and plant collection are both prohibited by law.
Have you encountered this plant--or something similar--on your hikes? Leave us a comment and tell us about your find.
John Muir described the snow plant in 1912:
"The snow plant (Sarcodes sanguinea) is more admired by tourists than any other in California. It is red, fleshy and watery and looks like a gigantic asparagus shoot. Soon after the snow is off the ground it rises through the dead needles and humus in the pine and fir woods like a bright glowing pillar of fire. In a week or so it grows to a height of eight or twelve inches with a diameter of an inch and a half or two inches; then its long fringed bracts curl aside, allowing the twenty- or thirty-five-lobed, bell-shaped flowers to open and look straight out from the axis. It is said to grow up through the snow; on the contrary, it always waits until the ground is warm, though with other early flowers it is occasionally buried or half-buried for a day or two by spring storms. The entire plant - flowers, bracts, stem, scales, and roots - is fiery red. Its color could appeal to one's blood. Nevertheless, it is a singularly cold and unsympathetic plant. Everybody admires it as a wonderful curiosity, but nobody loves it as lilies, violets, roses, daisies are loved. Without fragrance, it stands beneath the pines and firs lonely and silent, as if unacquainted with any other plant in the world; never moving in the wildest storms; rigid as if lifeless, though covered with beautiful rosy flowers."
View more photographs of this unusual plant.
View a distribution map, courtesy of Calflora.org.
Read James M. Hastings's description of the snow plant. (Scroll to the very bottom of the page.)
Read the Jepson Manual's entry on Sarcodes sanguinea
Read more about how the snow plant makes its living, through a symbiotic relationship with mycorrhizal fungi (opens as PDF)
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Comments (3)
Took a while to figure out what it was that was growing in
my yard in Idyllwild, CA. A Snow Plant. Wow, what a brilliant
red. It's next to a black oak, on the south side of the tree,
about 8" tall. Thanks for your information.
Posted by Jack Boaz | May 12, 2008 4:42 PM
Posted on May 12, 2008 16:42
Do you have any pines growing close by? I've always heard that the snow plant needs pine trees in order to survive, had no idea that they could grow with oaks, too.
Posted by Cynthia | May 13, 2008 8:39 AM
Posted on May 13, 2008 08:39
I remember seeing snow plants as a child backpacking through the Sierra Nevadas. Years ago the wear hard to find and I only saw them a few times. I haven't come across one in years, until yesterday in my backyard. I was on my deck and that red color caught my eye. A snow plant? I went to take a look and I found six growing together with what looks like five more pushing up from the ground. Although I live at lake Tahoe I am still amazed because I haven't seen one for along time and nowhere near my house. They are truly amazing plants.
Posted by anonymous | June 4, 2008 7:12 AM
Posted on June 4, 2008 07:12