Castle Crags ivesia facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Castle Crags ivesia
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Rosids
Order:	Rosales
Family:	Rosaceae
Genus:	Ivesia
Species:	I. longibracteata
Binomial name
Ivesia longibracteata Ertter
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Ivesia longibracteata, also known as Castle Crags ivesia or longbract mousetail, is a very rare flowering plant. It belongs to the rose family, just like the roses you might see in a garden!

This special plant is endemic to Shasta County, California. This means it grows naturally only in this specific area and nowhere else in the world! You can find it in a place called Castle Crags, where it loves to grow in rocky areas made of granite. It thrives in the cool, wet environment of a temperate coniferous forest, which is a type of forest with cone-bearing trees like pines and firs.

What is Castle Crags Ivesia?

The Castle Crags ivesia is a perennial herb. This means it's a plant that lives for more than two years, coming back each growing season. It forms a green, somewhat sticky clump of leaves that grows right out of cracks in granite rocks.

How Does It Look?

The leaves of this plant are quite small, usually about 2 to 4 centimeters long. Imagine a small paperclip; that's roughly how long they are! Each leaf is made up of several pairs of tiny leaflets that have a slightly lobed or bumpy edge.

When it blooms, the plant produces a cluster of several small flowers. This cluster, called an inflorescence, looks like a small head and is about 1 or 2 centimeters wide. Each individual flower is tiny, less than a centimeter long, and has delicate, pale yellow petals.