ESA status: under review (March 2021)

Shasta snow-wreath (Neviusia cliftonii) is endemic to northern California around the margins of Shasta Lake, north of the town of Redding, California. The environmental conditions and geographic isolation of the species suggest that it is a remnant of an old, formerly more widespread plant group. Fossil leaves of Neviusia have been unearthed in southern British Columbia. The Eastern Klamath Range, where Shasta snow wreath lives, is an ancient landscape, neither glaciated nor overlain by volcanic material, as were the surrounding Cascades, Sierra Nevada, and Trinity Mountains.

Fewer than twenty populations of this plant are known to exist, most of them small. Six of Shasta snow-wreath’s known populations were at least partly flooded by the creation of Shasta Lake after World War II. Its closest relative, Alabama snow-wreath, (Neviusia alabamensis) is a rare shrub of the southeastern United States.

The flowers of this plant are unusual in having no petals (occasionally one or two tiny remnant petals are present), and very many stamens, making the flowers look like tiny white puffs.

The Shasta snow wreath has been found in just 26 locations around Shasta Lake. It’s thought to have evolved as long as 34 to 56 million years ago, and grew across the Pacific Northwest. The plant is found mostly in small, isolated pockets around the lake.

The rare plant wasn’t discovered by scientists until 1992. It looks similar to other common shrubs in the area, and the flowers last for a very short period. The snow wreath is also often found growing among poison oak making it difficult to survey.