The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1889-08-03
THE SIERRA SNOW PLANT.
A Beautiful Flower Found on the Noun
tain Heights of the West.

A Beautiful Flower Found on the Noun.
tain Heights of the West.
One thing that never fails to interest
all who see it, when alone IL Is found
on the mountain heights of the Sierras,
is the snow plant, known to botanists
us the Sarcodcs Sanguiaea, meaning
blooded flesh. Both names are said to
be misnomers. The first was given 1t
from its supposed birth among the
Sierra snow, some travellers asserting
that 1t sent its roots into snowbanks us
other plants into earth. Superficial
observers were deceived by seeing the
brilliant spikes of flowers rising from
the snow that had fallen around them
in the quick mountain squalls after the
plants had grown. No flesh or blood
could be as eXquisitely beautiful; imag-
inc rosy and snow tented, crowded
hyacinth, from eight to twenty inches in
height, every miniature bell wound
about by q rosy and frosted silver rib
bon, all topped by II huge head of aspar-
agus in hoar frost and silver. The
frosted papilla is very marked on every
sepal and bract. Though the whole
translucent spike is flushed with rose
and carmine, the petals are the deepest
and most brilliantly colored parts of
the flower, which is five parted, and
each open one showing slightly the
stamens and pistils. There have been
seen specimens bearing eighty perfect
flowers and u pseudo-bulb twenty-five
i,, Al rar n1 ref
as spun glass. and although solid as a
pineapple when first dug up, dried
away to the size of the stem. All at
tempts at cultivation have thus far
failed. the bulbs refusing to stand trans
planting and the seeds to sprout. For
the man who can discover the way to
introduce them to cultivation there is a
fortune in store, and what a glorious
addition they will be to our early gar
den flora! They have been gathered in
their native wilds from May until past
the middle of July. but even at home
are said to be capricious in growth.
Localities where they abound one sea-
son may be without them the next.
They are found as high as 5000 feet
above the sea level and not much below
1000 1t was once said that they would
not survive below the level of the sum
mer snow line, but they have been
since seen almost covering the ground
far below. The snowbanks seem, how
ever, TO protect them from the winds
sweeping among the mountains, and
they make their early growth and de-
velopment beneath the driven SHOWS,
and when the approach of summer
leaves the surface of the ground eX-
posed it is covered in Il few days with
the red crowns of the snow plants. The
flowers are at first protected by the
leaf-like bracts, which gradually I'M
fold as the weather warns and appar-
emily close up again when the temper
ature becomes suddenly cold. When
thus closed the parts of the flower are
so perfectly fitted together as to resem-
BILE huge head of asparagus. The
brittle roots extend into the ground al
most as far as the flower does above it.
Although once thought to be parasitic
upon decaying cedar roots, no indica-
tions of a parasitic character are found
upon digging them up. The plant is
said to be found in soils of varying ma
ture, but always where it gets the water
from melting snow. Perhaps some new
system of refrigeration will be dis
covered by which the bulbs may be
transported to other regions. .--Ameri-
can Garden.