SNOW PLANT (Sarcodes sanguinea, Torr.). Flowers and 

 the whole plant red or sometimes tinged with yellow; a stout, 

 fleshy, columnar plant, 6 inches to a foot or so high, clothed 

 below in place of leaves with shingled, fleshy, pointed scales, 

 the bell-shaped flowers occupying the upper half of the plant 

 in the form of a thick spike, mingled with short curling bracts. 

 Blooming in late spring or summer, often several together, 

 in the litter of the forest floor at altitudes above 4,000 feet 

 in the Sierras of California south to San Pedro Martir in 

 Lower California, north to Oregon and eastward to Nevada. 



The Snow Plant is believed to be an example of symbiosis, 

 a case of partnership with a fungus which lives upon its roots 

 and acts as agent to gather nitrogen from the soil for its host. 

 The common name merely indicates that it is sometimes by 

 no means always found blooming in or near the snow. In 

 the Yosemite National Park, where it is always a curiosity to 

 visitors, it is forbidden by law to pluck the plant, in order that 

 it may not be exterminated. 



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