Symphoricarpos longiflorus

Identification

Description

(synonym:Symphoricarpos fragrans) Desert Snowberry is a small-leaved plant with dainty, pink tubular flowers that grows in moister spots in the desert mountains under Junipers, Pinus monophylla and Artemisia tridentata. This snowberry defies the myth of the harshness of the desert. Everything looks so dry and hot in summer when the tourists are driving around in their air-conditioned cars; the plants though, are active in spring, and by tourist season they've gone back to resting, and waiting for the next spring. Desert snowberry is unique in the world of snowberries, being the only species possessing tubular-with-a-spreading tip (salverform) flowers. Slow-growing and long-lived in the wild (150+ years), desert snowberry grows much faster in garden conditions. We have seen them growing on north slopes in loamy, alkaline clay soils. In the nursery this snowberry likes full to part sun along the edge of regularly watered areas. Flowers, growing in clusters at the tip of the branches, are a delightful pink with white and blue tinges. The plant moves from nondescript to a delicate beauty in a month of glory. I was taking one of the pictures with a tripod and a hummingbird flew up three feet from me and scoldingly worked the flowers as I was trying focus on her with the stupid tripod. Hummingbird one, mangled tripod zero.