Symphoricarpos mollis

Identification

Description

Creeping Snowberry grows on north slopes, in ravines, and sometimes is all that's left of an oak woodland in full sun. The more coastal the setting the more sun this snowberry can handle. In some of the shady ravines the light intensity is so low you have to use 400 speed film at noon to take a picture. The best plants I've seen are along the edge of an interior climate in the heavy shade of Umbellularia californica and Quercus agrifolia a few miles from here. They were growing flat and 5' across with the leaves 1 foot between nodes. Creeping snowberry was planted at CALM (California Living Museum) in Bakersfield in full sun; looks excellent there for a month each year, when it is in flower and the new leaves are coming out. Then the leaves burn off on the first hot day. Pink flowers are used by hummingbirds, the snowberries are used by California Thrashers(when they get real hungry as the berries taste like Ivory soap). A delightful, slow-growing groundcover in a shady garden in places like Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego. Mix with Ribes, Heuchera, Lonicera, and Satureja douglasii for an interesting yard.