Cusick's giant hyssop facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Cusick's giant hyssop |
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|---|---|
| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Genus: |
Agastache
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| Species: |
cusickii
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Agastache cusickii, also known as Cusick's giant hyssop, is a special kind of flowering plant. It belongs to the mint family, which means it's related to plants like peppermint and basil. This plant grows naturally in the northwestern parts of the United States. You can find it in states like eastern Oregon, central Nevada, Idaho, and Montana.
About Cusick's Giant Hyssop
What Does It Look Like?
This plant is a perennial herb. This means it's a plant that lives for more than two years and doesn't have a woody stem like a tree. It usually grows to be about 10 to 20 centimeters tall. That's roughly the length of a pencil! It grows from a strong, woody taproot (a main root that grows straight down) and a caudex (a thick, woody base). Some of its stems even spread out underground.
Its leaves are covered in tiny, soft hairs. When the plant produces seeds, they are found inside small, dry fruits called nutlets. The flowers grow in a spiky cluster called an inflorescence. Each flower has purple-tipped sepals (leaf-like parts that protect the bud) and white corollas (the petals of the flower). Each corolla is about one centimeter long. You can also see its stamens (the parts that make pollen) sticking out from the flower. Cusick's giant hyssop blooms during the summer, usually from June through August.
Where Does It Grow?
Cusick's giant hyssop likes to grow in dry, rocky mountain areas. You can often find it on talus slopes, which are hillsides covered in broken rocks. It thrives in sagebrush areas and high alpine places.
In Nevada, this plant grows among limber pine and pinyon-juniper woodland trees. On Steens Mountain in Oregon, it has been seen growing near western juniper, curlleaf mountain-mahogany, and quaking aspen trees. In the Tendoy Mountains of Montana, it often grows with big sagebrush and Indian ricegrass on rocky limestone slopes.
