266 



Sierra Club Bulletin. 



THE STEER'S HEAD FLOWER OF THE SIERRA 

 NEVADA. 



By Willis Linn Jepson. 



The alpine vegetation of the Sierra Nevada includes 

 many interesting and remarkable plants. Some of them 

 are common at certain altitudes and with each recurring 

 season delight the traveler on his high mountain jour- 

 neys. Others are found only in a few remote localities 

 or are rarely seen by the mountaineer. One of these rare 

 plants is the Steer's Head Flower, known to botanists as 

 Dicentra uniUora (Fig. i.) It is a close relative of the 

 Bleeding Heart of the gardens, which also belongs to the 

 genus Dicentra. 



The Steer's Head Flower as it occurs in the Sierra 

 Nevada is known only in a few rather widely separated 

 localities from the Yosemite Park northward to the region 

 of Lake Tahoe and to Lassen Peak. It is a very small 

 plant, only one and one-half to three inches high, and, 

 except when in full flower, is so inconspicuous that it may 

 readily be overlooked. The snow has scarcely gone from 

 a slope before it has raised its solitary flower on a naked 

 stalk two or three inches high ; after a few days the stalks 

 lie prostrate on the ground and the seed-pods begin to 

 grow toward maturity. Its season of flowering is very 

 brief and once the flowering has passed a sharp eye is 

 needed to detect the few small finely cut leaves and the 

 stalked seed-pod of this diminutive plant close against the 

 brown rocky slope. 



In the last days of July, while with the 191 1 Outing 

 of the Club, the writer was climbing Macomb Ridge be- 

 tween Tilden Lake and Stubblefield Cafion in the north- 

 eastern part of the Yosemite National Park. On this 

 climb many Steer's Head Flowers were seen in great 

 perfection. The altitude is about 9,400 to 9,700 feet. 



