Symphoricarpos mollis (Creeping Snowberry)

6/12/04 Round Valley Trail, 9,000' elevation, Mt. San Jacinto SP, Riverside County, CA

LIFE LIST NOTES:

COMMON NAME: Creeping Snowberry

SPECIES: Symphoricarpos mollis

FAMILY: Caprifoliaceae (Honeysuckle Family)

LIFE LIST DATE: 6/12/2004

LOCATION: Round Valley Trail, 9,000' elevation, Mt. San Jacinto SP, Riverside County, CA

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Treatment from The Jepson Manual (1993):

Plant trailing or creeping, 1.5–6 dm, ± glabrous to soft-hairy

Stem: branches often rooting; root-crowns and old nodes often becoming very swollen

Leaf: blade 0.5–3 cm

Inflorescence: flowers 2–8

Flower: calyx limb spreading, divided halfway; corolla ± 4 mm, bell-shaped, pink (often red outside), lobes ± erect, 1/2 corolla length, hairy inside; nectary glands below all 5 lobes

Fruit ± 8 mm, round

Seed 2–4 mm

Ecology: Ridges, slopes, open places in woods

Elevation: 9–3000 m.  

Bioregional distribution: Northwestern California, Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, Central Western California, Southwestern California, Modoc Plateau 

Distribution outside California: to British Columbia, Idaho, New Mexico

Two ill-defined forms may be recognized:  S. acutus (A. Gray) Dieck (twig hairs spreading, leaves densely hairy below; chiefly SN);  S. hesperius G.N. Jones (twigs puberulent, leaves thin, sparsely hairy below; chiefly KR)

Horticultural information: 4, 6, 17, SHD: 15, 16 &IRR: 1, 2, 7, 9, 14, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24; STBL.