Carson Valley monkeyflower facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Carson Valley monkeyflower |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Genus: |
Erythranthe
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| Species: |
carsonensis
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The Carson Valley monkeyflower (Erythranthe carsonensis) is a special type of wild flower. It's known for its bright yellow flowers and small size.
Where It Grows
This unique flower is found only in a few places in Nevada and California. Its home is limited to three specific valleys: Carson, Eagle, and Washoe Valleys. It also grows in the hills around these areas.
The Carson Valley monkeyflower likes dry, sandy soil. You can often find it growing among sagebrush and bitterbrush plants.
What It Looks Like
The Carson Valley monkeyflower is an annual plant. This means it grows from a seed, flowers, makes new seeds, and then dies, all within one year.
It's quite small, usually only 2 to 10 centimeters (about 1 to 4 inches) tall. Each plant can have anywhere from 1 to 20 bright yellow flowers.
The flowers are typically 0.5 to 1 inch wide. They are yellow with tiny yellow hairs and small red dots on the inside. There's also a bigger red dot on the lower part of the flower. Sometimes, on very small plants, the flower can look much bigger than the rest of the plant!
A long time ago, a botanist named Sereno Watson described this flower beautifully. He wrote that it was "A pretty dwarf flower of earliest spring, forming bright patches of color among the sage-brush in the lower valleys, the delicate inch-long stem seeming scarce able to sustain the absurdly disproportionate flowers that terminate it. Carson Valley, Nevada ; April." He was amazed by how such a tiny plant could have such large, colorful flowers.
How Scientists Know It's Special
For a while, scientists thought the Carson Valley monkeyflower was the same as another flower called Erythranthe montioides. But in 2012, after looking closely at its shape and where it grows, they realized it was different enough to be its own unique species.
