Big tarweed facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Big tarweed |
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| plant surviving after a brushfire | |
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B. plumosa
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| Blepharizonia plumosa (Kellogg) Greene
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Blepharizonia plumosa is a special plant from California. People often call it the big tarweed. It's a type of tarweed that only grows in certain parts of central California. You can find it in the Central Coast Ranges and nearby areas like the southern San Francisco Bay Area and the Central Valley. It grows from Sonoma County down to San Luis Obispo County.
Contents
What is Big Tarweed?
This plant is an annual herb. This means it grows from a seed, flowers, produces seeds, and then dies all within one year. It has a hairy, straight stem that can grow very tall, sometimes up to two meters (about 6.5 feet).
Leaves and Flowers
The leaves of the big tarweed are long and thin. The biggest leaves are found near the bottom of the plant. They can be up to 15 centimeters (about 6 inches) long. Sometimes, these leaves have small teeth along their edges.
The plant has many flower heads. These are grouped together in what's called an inflorescence. Each flower head has a ring of up to 13 white ray florets. These look like petals and have red veins. They are just under a centimeter long.
Center of the Flower Head
The middle of each flower head is full of disc florets. These are small, tube-shaped flowers that stick out. They have large, dark parts called anthers. Anthers are where pollen is made.
Seeds and Fruit
After the flowers bloom, the plant produces fruit. This fruit is a hairy, club-shaped achene. An achene is a type of dry fruit that contains a single seed. Sometimes, these fruits have a pappus at their tip. A pappus is like a feathery or bristly crown that helps the seed float away in the wind.
Plant Classification
Scientists sometimes think of Blepharizonia as a genus with only one species. Other times, they consider it a genus with two species. One type of B. plumosa is sometimes seen as its own species, called Blepharizonia laxa.
See also
In Spanish: Blepharizonia para niños
