Snow plant
A bright red, leafless stalk that pushes up through melting spring snow in the conifer forests of Lassen Volcanic, and makes no food of its own.
Snow plant at a glance
Sarcodes sanguinea SNOH plant; Sarcodes sanguinea is sar-KOH-deez san-GWIN-ee-uh
- Type
- Plant · wildflower
- Diet
- Other
- Size
- A stalk stands about 6 to 12 inches tall (15 to 30 cm), roughly the height of a ruler, thick and fleshy like a red asparagus spear covered in bell-shaped flowers.
- Lifespan
- The red stalk you see lives only a few weeks each spring, but the plant's underground root system lives on year after year.
- Conservation
- Not evaluated (not on the IUCN Red List; locally common, and protected by law in California, so do not pick).
Eats sugars from underground fungi, which take their sugar from conifer tree roots
The snow plant is bright red because it has no green chlorophyll and makes no food from sunlight the way normal plants do. Instead its roots tap into threads of fungus in the soil and take sugar from them. Those fungi are joined to the roots of nearby pine and fir trees, so in the end the snow plant is quietly borrowing food the big trees made.
Is it safe to touch?
Harmless to touch, not poisonous. Look, do not pick. Snow plants cannot be moved or replanted because they live off buried fungi, and in California it is against the law to dig or damage them. Point, take a photo, and leave it growing.
In late spring, when the snow is still melting back under the pines and firs at Lassen Volcanic, a strange thing pushes up through the brown needles on the forest floor: a fat red stalk the color of a fire truck, crowded with little bell-shaped flowers and no leaves at all. That is a snow plant. There is no green anywhere on it, and the missing green is the whole story. Most plants are green because of chlorophyll, the stuff they use to turn sunlight into food. The snow plant threw the green away.
So how does a plant with no chlorophyll eat? It cheats, quietly. Under the ground its roots tangle into threads of fungus in the soil, and those same fungal threads are joined to the roots of the pine and fir trees standing nearby. The snow plant pulls sugar out of the fungus, and the fungus pulled it from the trees, so in the end the red stalk is living on food the tall conifers made from sunlight. Scientists call a plant that feeds this way a mycoheterotroph.
The red stalk you see lasts only a few weeks, though the plant’s root system lives on underground year after year. A snow plant cannot be dug up and replanted, because it would starve without the buried fungus it feeds on, and in California it is against the law to pick or damage one. So the thing to do is simple: crouch down, look at the bell-shaped flowers stacked up the stalk, take a photo, and leave it glowing there in the melting snow.
Did you know?
- The snow plant is one of the first things to appear as the snow melts, sometimes pushing straight up through the last patches of snow, which is how it got its name. Its glowing red makes it easy to spot on the brown forest floor.
- It is red because it threw away the green. Most plants are green because of chlorophyll, the stuff they use to turn sunlight into food. The snow plant has none, so it cannot make its own food and shows its other colors instead.
- It steals its meals through a fungus. The snow plant taps into underground threads of fungus that are already feeding off pine and fir roots, so it lives on sugar the trees made. Scientists call a plant that does this a mycoheterotroph.
Common questions
Why is the snow plant red and not green?
It has no chlorophyll, the green stuff plants use to make food from sunlight. Without green, its red color shows instead.
If it is not green, how does it eat?
Its roots connect to fungi in the soil, and those fungi are connected to the roots of pine and fir trees. The snow plant takes sugar from the fungi, which took it from the trees.
Can I pick one or take it home?
No. It lives off buried fungi and cannot survive if you move it, and in California picking or digging it is against the law. Take a picture instead.
When and where do I see one?
In late spring and early summer, right after the snow melts, on the shady conifer forest floor at Lassen Volcanic.