''Symphoricarpos mollis'', with the common names creeping snowberry, Southern California snowberry, and trip vine, is a

shrub A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees by their multiple ...

in the honeysuckle family.Flowering Plans of the Santa Monica Mountains, Nancy Dale, 2nd. Ed, 2000, p. 91

Description

The plant is a creeping shrub, low growing and straggling, with stems that can reach several feet while the height limited to about . It reproduces both from via

rhizome In botany and dendrology, a rhizome ( ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and Shoot (botany), shoots from its Node (botany), nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from ...

and seed. Leaves are opposite. Stems are flexible. It bears bunches of red or pink rounded, bell-shaped flowers and spherical or bulbous white or pink-tinted fruits measuring about .

Distribution and habitat

The shrub is found in western North America from

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

inland to

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

and

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain states, Mountain West subregions of the Western United States. It borders Montana and Wyoming to the east, Nevada and Utah to the south, and Washington (state), ...

.Jones, George Neville 1940. A monograph of the genus ''Symphoricarpos''. Journal of the Arnold Arboretum 21(2): 201-252
/ref> It does well in warm climates and can tolerate both intense sun and constant shade. It is a plant of

chaparral Chaparral ( ) is a shrubland plant plant community, community found primarily in California, southern Oregon, and northern Baja California. It is shaped by a Mediterranean climate (mild wet winters and hot dry summers) and infrequent, high-intens ...

ecosystems, especially along coastlines.

Edibility

The fruits are inedible. While not generally considered toxic, they are distasteful, having a

soap Soap is a salt (chemistry), salt of a fatty acid (sometimes other carboxylic acids) used for cleaning and lubricating products as well as other applications. In a domestic setting, soaps, specifically "toilet soaps", are surfactants usually u ...

y texture due to the presence of

saponin Saponins (Latin ''sapon'', 'soap' + ''-in'', 'one of') are bitter-tasting, usually toxic plant-derived secondary metabolites. They are organic chemicals that become foamy when agitated in water and have high molecular weight. They are present ...

References

External links

Jepson Manual Treatment, University of California
* ttp://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?query_src=photos_index&where-taxon=Symphoricarpos+mollis Calphotos Photo gallery, University of California mollis Flora of British Columbia Flora of the Western United States Garden plants of North America Drought-tolerant plants Plants described in 1841 Bird food plants Flora without expected TNC conservation status {{Dipsacales-stub