Cutleaf silverpuffs facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Cutleaf silverpuffs |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Genus: |
Microseris
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| Species: |
laciniata
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Microseris laciniata is a type of flowering plant. It belongs to the aster family, which includes many well-known flowers like sunflowers and daisies. People often call this plant the cutleaf silverpuffs. You can find it growing naturally in the western United States. It lives in states like Washington, northern California, and Nevada. This plant likes to grow in forests and open grasslands.
What Does the Cutleaf Silverpuffs Look Like?
The cutleaf silverpuffs is a plant that lives for more than two years. It can grow quite tall, sometimes up to one meter (about three feet) high. Its stem often has many branches.
The plant has many leaves. They can be from 10 to 50 centimeters (about 4 to 20 inches) long. Their shape can be different from one plant to another. Some leaves have smooth edges, while others might have jagged or deeply cut edges.
The flowers grow on a tall, straight or slightly curved stalk. This stalk is called a peduncle. The flower itself is a special kind of flower head. It looks like one big flower but is actually made of many tiny flowers. When it's still a bud, the flower head can be about 3 centimeters long. When it opens, it becomes wide and shows off many bright yellow petals. These petals are called ray florets, and there can be 100 or more of them!
How Does It Make Seeds?
After the flower blooms, it produces a fruit. This fruit is called an achene. It's a small, dry fruit that holds the seed, similar to a sunflower seed. The achene is usually gray or brown and only a few millimeters long.
At the top of the achene, there's a fluffy part called a pappus. This pappus helps the seed fly away in the wind. It's made of 5 to over 20 long, hairy scales. Each of these scales can be longer than one centimeter.
There are also four different types, or subspecies, of Microseris laciniata.
How People Used This Plant
Long ago, Native American people in the Mendocino area used parts of the cutleaf silverpuffs. They would eat the root of the plant. Even though it was a bit bitter, it was a source of food.
They also found another interesting use for the plant. The cutleaf silverpuffs has a milky liquid inside its stem. People would collect this milky sap. They would then leave it out in the sun. As it dried, it turned into a sticky substance that they could use like chewing gum!
