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

shrub A shrub (often also called a 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 ...

in the Honeysuckle Family (

Caprifoliaceae The Caprifoliaceae or honeysuckle family is a clade of dicotyledonous flowering plants consisting of about 860 species, in 33, to 42 genera, with a nearly cosmopolitan distribution. Centres of diversity are found in eastern North America an ...

).Flowering Plans of the Santa Monica Mountains, Nancy Dale, 2nd. Ed, 2000, p. 91 It is found in western North America from

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

inland to

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

and

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyom ...

.Jones, George Neville 1940. A monograph of the genus ''Symphoricarpos''. Journal of the Arnold Arboretum 21(2): 201-252
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Range and habitat

The shrub 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 community and geographical feature found primarily in the U.S. state of California, in southern Oregon, and in the northern portion of the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico. It is shaped by a Mediterranean c ...

ecosystems, especially along coastlines.

Growth pattern

The plant is a creeping shrub, low growing and straggling, with stems that can reach several feet while the height limited to only about 1 1/2 ft. It reproduces both from via

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

and seed.

Leaves and stems

Leaves are opposite. Stems are flexible.

Inflorescence

It bears bunches of red or pink rounded, bell-shaped flowers and spherical or bulbous white or pink-tinted fruits. The fruits are not generally considered toxic but are distasteful, having a

soap Soap is a salt of a fatty acid used in a variety of cleansing and lubricating products. In a domestic setting, soaps are surfactants usually used for washing, bathing, and other types of housekeeping. In industrial settings, soaps are use ...

y texture due to the presence of

saponin Saponins (Latin "sapon", soap + "-in", one of), also selectively referred to as triterpene glycosides, are bitter-tasting usually toxic plant-derived organic chemicals that have a foamy quality when agitated in water. They are widely distributed ...

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 Mollis is a former municipality in the canton of Glarus in Switzerland. Effective from 1 January 2011, Mollis is part of the municipality of Glarus Nord. History Mollis is first mentioned in 1288. Geography Mollis has an area, , of . Of thi ...

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