Buek's groundsel facts for kids

Packera subnuda is a type of flowering plant in the aster family. It has a few common names like Buek's groundsel and cleftleaf groundsel. This plant grows in the high mountains of western North America. You can find it from the Northwest Territories in Canada all the way down to northern California and Wyoming in the United States. It loves cool places like high mountain meadows in subalpine and alpine climates.

What Packera subnuda Looks Like

This plant is a perennial herb. This means it's a plant without a woody stem that lives for many years. It grows from an underground stem called a rhizome or from its roots.

It usually has one straight stem, but sometimes it can have a small group of 2 or 3 stems. These stems grow between 5 and 30 centimeters tall. The leaves at the bottom of the plant are thick and oval-shaped. They can be up to 3 or 4 centimeters long and have their own small stems called petioles. Leaves higher up on the main stem are smaller and simpler.

Its Flowers

The plant's inflorescence (which is how its flowers are arranged) is usually a single flower head. Sometimes, it can have two to five flower heads. Each flower head is surrounded by special reddish or green leaves called phyllaries. These phyllaries often have green or bluish tips.

Inside each flower head, there are many tiny golden yellow disc florets. These are the small flowers in the center. There are also usually 13 yellow ray florets. These are the petal-like flowers on the outside, and each one is about a centimeter long.