Epigaea repens or snakewood or creeping arbutus

[peevee]

occasionally when I am hiking in I will see what I consider to be rare plant, spreading low to the ground, woody deep red stems, little flowers in spring and amazingly enough it looks like an arbutus because of the peeling bark. I have been told on another occasion that it is called snakewood. I have seen a specimen on Mayne Island a few years back. It seems to grow on sunny steep slopes and there is one on the south face of Crumpit Peak behind our house in Squamish. Seems to like dry rocky slopes.

[Ron B]

Epigaea doesn't grow wild out here. Must be something else.

[Ron B]

Epigaea doesn't grow natively out here. Must be something else, unless a bit of it has been able to escape cultivation - not something that seems too likely under our climate conditions.