38 Popular Studies of California Wild Flozvers 



The Snow Plant 

 (Sarcodes sanguined Torrey) 



The Snow Plant is almost wholly confined to the high altitudes 

 of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California. It is sometimes 

 found in the mountains of southern Oregon and a portion of Nevada, 

 and has been discovered as far south as San Pedro Martir in Lower 

 California. This weird and extremely interesting plant has gained 

 world renown ; tourists actually come from all over the world to 

 seek for it growing in its native surroundings. 



In the Yosemite Valley, where it was more frequently found, 

 it was discovered that visitors, with that morbid curiosity charac- 

 terizing people whose interest in flowers is but momentary, were 

 pulling it up by the roots or breaking it the better to examine it, 

 and as the plant was being exterminated, a heavy fine was imposed 

 for gathering the flower. It is now considered a misdemeanor to 

 pluck a Snow Plant in the Yosemite National Park. A fine of 

 twenty-five dollars or imprisonment may be imposed for such an 

 offense. 



It seems a pity that this flower, which has long puzzled scien- 

 tists and so greatly interested travelers and writers, could not be 

 better protected in California, its native habitat, and that the law- 

 enacted guarding its presence in the Yosemite National Park might 

 not be extended throughout the State. Interest in the Snow Plant 

 would be increased, inasmuch as we value its presence within our 

 borders. 



The Snow Plant is a member of the famous Heath Family, 

 which claims many of our finest flowers, including the Azalea, Rho- 

 dodendron, Huckleberry, Manzanita, and Madrone ; it was long 

 thought to be a parasite, but is akin in habit to the Fungi, and most 

 evidently it has made some strange compact with bacteria growths 

 for their mutual help, for its blood-red tissues lack all trace of that 

 green coloring matter supplied by the magician Chlorophyll for 

 transmuting or combining the elements necessary for the food of 

 plants which earn their own living; its very long root is not con- 

 nected with that of any other plant. Whether the scientifically 

 inclined call it parasite, fungus, saprophyte, or aught else, matters 

 but little to the average citizen, who is interested from quite a dif- 

 ferent viewpoint. Botanists will go on to the end of time splitting 

 hairs over differentiations in plant life. A "Snow Plant" it will be 

 called until the end of time. The people have so decreed. Its 

 botanical name, Sarcodes sanguinea, if generally understood, would 

 not add to its attractiveness ; it means "Bloody Flesh." It is perhaps 

 as well that we do not always grasp the meaning of these high- 

 sounding Greek and Latin words. 



So much has been written about this strange flower and so 

 diverse are the opinions of botanists and writers regarding it, that 

 it has seemed best to quote from a few of our well-known California 

 writers of authority. I have been greatly interested and at times 



