Sarcodes sanguinea

Snow plant

Family: Ericaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Snow plant is a California native perennial found in the Klamath Ranges, northern coastal regions, high Cascades, Sierra Nevada, southern coastal ranges, Transverse Ranges, Peninsular Ranges, and Modoc Plateau in conifer or mixed forest at elevations of 700 to 3,100 meters. Flowering from May to July, this unusual non-green plant produces bright red to orange-red flowers in dense racemes emerging directly from the ground, with urn-shaped blossoms 12 to 18 millimeters long. Growing as a fleshy, glandular-hairy plant without traditional stems or leaves, it emerges as a striking bright red structure with thick, brittle roots. Its distinctive red structure features five-petaled flowers that are mostly fused, creating a unique appearance in the forest understory. The plant produces small capsules less than 2.5 centimeters wide, containing numerous tiny unwinged seeds, and remains persistent in the forest floor after seed dispersal.

Habitat: Conifer or mixed forest

Bloom period: May-Jul

Elevation: 700-3100 m

Bioregions: KR, NCoRO, NCoRH, CaRH, SNH, SCoRO, TR, PR, MP

California counties: Los Angeles, Mariposa, Tuolumne, Tulare, Fresno, Marin, Riverside, Plumas, Kern, San Bernardino, Inyo, El Dorado, Ventura, Sierra, Placer, Madera, Butte, Nevada, Amador, Alpine, Calaveras, Lassen, Shasta, Siskiyou, Tehama, Trinity, Humboldt, Del Norte, Mono, Santa Barbara, Sacramento

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.