FIELD NOTES OF THE 1920 OUTING 

 Elizabeth Van E. Ferguson 



KAISER RIDGE, July 6. — Perhaps no plant of our Sierra for- 

 ests attracts more attention than our brilliant blood-red 

 Snow-Plant {Sar codes sanguinea). It is a very Mephistopheles 

 among plants. Finding it, however, on a warm summer's day miles 

 from any snow, one is inclined to question its popular name. Indeed, 

 it is no more truly a snow-plant than many another Sierra plant. It 

 does not grow nearly so high nor so close to the banks of perpetual 

 snow as do the sky-blue Polemoniums or the Sierra Primroses. It is 

 a plant of middle altitudes, associated in our minds with magnificent 

 red-fir forests. How often have we not come upon a clump of these 

 scarlet miracles lighting up the leafy mold at the roots of some 

 giant fir tree ! Perhaps a snowbank may form a background — but it 

 is a fast-melting snowbank, the last remnant of the winter fall. It is 

 doubtful if a Snow-Plant ever pushed its way up through winter 

 snow, although it is possible that a late spring snow might cover the 

 ground with a light mantle after the plants had started. Such a be- 

 lated snowfall piling about the brilliant red stalks would certainly 

 give the effect of their actually growing and blooming in the snow. 



Although called a parasite, the Snow-Plant is not such, as it does 

 not draw its sustenance from the living tissues of another plant. It 

 is a saprophyte — that is, it lives on dead, decaying vegetable mat- 

 ter. Its blood-red stems arise from an underground, very much in- 

 volved mass of coralline roots which gather up food materials from 

 the leafy mold of the forest floor. Often there are as many as a 

 dozen stalks from a single network of these roots. 



Mono Meadows, July 8. — One of the rare treats of a trip into the 

 mountains is to come suddenly upon a light-blue patch of the deli- 

 cate jewel flowers of Downingia montana. This is a little member 

 of the Lobelia family which may be found on the margins of vernal 

 pools. As in Mono Meadows, the water often entirely disappears 

 from these pools, leaving in its place a close carpet of these tiny 

 flowers. Although beautiful in mass, the flowers are even more 

 lovely when examined closely. Perched at the top of a long, slender 



