Plant Species of San Jacinto Mountain:
Sarcodes sanguinea, snowplant
Sarcodes sanguinea, snowplant
This page was just begun on 28 June 2026 to start to hold some information on this species.
We have been gathering data for some time on the locations of plants of Sarcodes sanguinea, snowplant, to test whether or not it is the perennial claimed in the Jepson eFlora. We also are gathering data on how persistent the individual plants are in the year that they were observed, after learning that snowplants in northern California apparently vanish quickly after setting seed, from deer, fungus gnats, etc. (see the comment by @aelcolwell about two-thirds down the page).
Table 1 gives information about the snowplants seen on the Devils Slide Trail in 2026, in order of their occurrence from the bottom of the trail to the top.
Table 1. Snowplants observed on the Devils Slide Trail in 2026
| # | Link to Discovery obs | Link to Follow-up obs | Previously-seen plants in vicinity? | Miles from Trailhead |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 28 March 2026 | not relocated on 26 June 2026 | No | 0.30 |
| 2 | 28 March 2026 28 March 2026 | 26 June 2026 26 June 2026 | No | 0.65 |
| 3 | 31 May 2026 | 26 June 2026 26 June 2026 | Many | 1.43 |
| 4 | 28 March 2026 | 26 June 2026 26 June 2026 | No | 1.44 |
| 5 | 1 May 2026 | not relocated on 26 June 2026 | Many | 1.57 |
The information about "previously-seen plants in vicinity" refers to having other iNat obs within several hundred feet, and does not imply that there were previously-seen plants at the exact location of the plant in question. It requires careful analysis of the iNat obs to try to conclude that any were taken at the exact location.
Plant persistence after fruiting.
Three of the five snowplants observed in 2026 were relocated long after they had fruited and the stalks had withered. It is possible the other two snowplants were in a more advanced stage of decay, accounting for why they were not relocated. It is also possible that something ate the plants.
We also have seen many persistant plants on the Devils Slide Trail in previous years, but also failed to relocate plants in other areas in some previous years that had been seen earlier in the year. On the Devils Slide Trail, one year we monitored a number of Sarcodes plants week after week, and found that after the plants develop their fruit, they usually fall over and gradually fall apart.
It appears to be a mixed bag at San Jacinto Mountain, with some persistant after fruiting, and some not. Perhaps the persistance on the Devils Slide Trail is because there are essentially no deer there due to the large number of hikers on that trail.
Are Sarcodes plants perennial?
By "perennial" in this section, we mean "does the same plant produce flowering stems in multiple consecutive years", which is what most other plants that we call perennials do. Keir Morse pointed out that we have no idea how long a Sarcodes plant spends underground, storing up reserves from its fungus host, before it produces its inflorescence above ground. If the underground process takes longer than a year, the plant could be considered a biennial or perennial even if it only produces a single inflorescence in its lifetime.
Of the five snowplants observed in 2026, three of them have no previous iNat posts from the vicinity of their location.
Two of the snowplants observed in 2026 have many iNat posts from previous years from the vicinity of their location, but not necessarily the same location as the plants observed in 2026. GPS locations are often problematic at San Jacinto Mountain, so it will take careful study of the previous year's plants to see if any are from the same location, as would be expected if this species was a perennial.
The three observations with no plants seen previously in their vicinity already cast doubt on whether this species is actually a perennial.
To check on this further, we carefully analyzed the observations from 2025, and found that there were eight distinct plants, at mile 0.13, 0.46, 0.67, 1.00, 1.43, 1.45, 1.46, and 1.88. Those locations, and the 2026 locations, are plotted in Fig. 1.
Fig. 1. Sarcodes locations on the Devils Slide Trail in 2025 and 2026. The iNat observations have been carefully reviewed, so that there is only one position for each plant, even though there might be multiple iNat observations with different GPS positions
This map is strikingly different than would be produced for essentially every other species on this trail! The plants of nearly every species, be they annuals, perennials, or shrubs, are found at the exact same location from year to year. Their markers from one year would fall exactly on top of ones from another year, with no locations at all with markers from only a single year.
Instead, there is an amazing difference in many locations between 2025 and 2026, with the exception of the northernmost area which had three plants observed in both years, albeit not at exactly the same locations. That area might simply be richer in the number of Sarcodes plants, since the trees and their leaf litter appear to be thicker there. That area is also moister, with seeps that appear in the wettest years. As a result, the fungus host of Sarcodes might be more abundant there.
The markers must be right on top of each other to be at the same location. For example, the two red 2025 diamonds at top middle with just a small visible shift, are distinct plants separated by about 30 feet (10 m).
It appears from Fig. 1 that no Sarcodes plant came up at the same location in the two years, although one area remained a hotbed for plants in a larger area. This is quite surprising even if it is an annual, since seeds appear to fall to the ground essentially at the location of the fruiting plant.
Apparently no one knows how the seeds are dispersed, or why there is such surprising variation in the locations from year to year.
Our take is that it seems likely the birds are involved in spreading the seed. Why else would the plant be such a bright red? That allows birds to spot the plant from the beginning, and keep it in their amazing memories to harvest the seeds when they are ripe. We've seen hummingbirds in Long Valley very early in the year, nectaring on Sarcodes when Sarcodes is the only plant blooming there. If birds spread seeds that they do not eat, by having them as hitchhikers on the outside of their beaks, or on their bodies, that easily explains why Sarcodes plants pop up in very different places each year.
Maybe insects are also involved in spreading the seeds. Sarcodes flowers have a UV blue fluorescence to attract insects to the flowers. Perhaps the fruit fluoresces, too!
But it still doesn't explain why plants don't come up in the same location every year, since some of the seeds fall to the ground immediately below the plant. Perhaps the presence of Sarcodes plants alters their immediate environment in such a way as to inhibit its own seeds from germinating in that spot.
Another explanation could be as follows. If their seeds can germinate under an existing plant that fruited, and if it takes two or more years for seeds to develop into flowering plants, that would imply that there would be inflorescences at the same positions only every two or more years. We should be able to confirm or deny that hypothesis when we examine data from more years.