Snow Plant

Typically one of the first plants to flower in the spring, Snow Plant (Sarcodes sanguinea) usually grows in shady beds of needles in pine forest. In mid-May 2008, there was a phenomenal bloom of them in the region of the Dewey Ridge ski trail and in the course of a few miles walk saw perhaps one hundred of them.

Snow plants are a parasitic plant which takes it's sustenance from fungi in the soil and therefore does not need chlorophyll to convert sunlight to energy, thus the bright red color.