Mountain misery
Ankle-deep fern-like mats under the oaks, white rose flowers, and a resin that sticks to everything that walks through it.
In brief
Chamaebatia foliolosa, Rosaceae.
- Evergreen aromatic subshrub, mat-forming
- Endemic to California
- Flowers May to July
- Fruit an achene
Where it grows
The western slopes of the Cascades and the Sierra Nevada, from Shasta County south to Kern County, between 2,000 and 7,000 feet. This land at 2,300 feet sits at the bottom edge of its range.
When it blooms
May to July. The flowers are small, white and unmistakably rose family, five petals around a yellow center.
Seed and fruit
A single dry achene.
Here
Photographed on May 30, 2023. It carpets the ground under the oaks and pines, ferny and strongly aromatic, and the resin is what earned it the name: it gets on boots, on dogs, and on anything that crosses it. Bear clover is the other name, and the one most people here use.
By Yggdrasil Springs
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