Pinewoods lousewort facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Pinewoods lousewort |
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| ssp. charlestonensis | |
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Pedicularis semibarbata, often called the pinewoods lousewort, is a fascinating flowering plant. It belongs to the Orobanchaceae family, which is also known as the broomrape family.
You can find this plant growing naturally in California and Nevada. It often lives in conifer forests, which are woodlands filled with trees like pines and firs. It's commonly seen in mountain areas such as the Peninsular Ranges, Sierra Nevada, and Transverse Ranges.
What Does It Look Like?
The pinewoods lousewort is a perennial herb. This means it's a plant that lives for more than two years. It grows several stems, but most of the stem stays hidden underground. This makes the plant stay very low to the ground, usually only about 20 centimeters tall.
Its leaves can grow up to 20 centimeters long. They are shaped like a spear and are divided into many smaller parts. These smaller parts often have jagged edges or lobes.
The flowers grow in a cluster called a raceme. Each flower is usually yellow, but it might have hints of red or purple. They are shaped a bit like a club and can be longer than 2 centimeters. The flowers have a fuzzy top part that looks like a hood and a lower part with three small lobes.
A Plant That Borrows Food!
Like many plants in the broomrape family, the pinewoods lousewort is a root-parasite. This means it doesn't get all its food from the soil and sunlight like most plants. Instead, it "borrows" nutrients from the roots of other plants!
This lousewort taps into the roots of conifer trees and a type of lupine plant called Lupinus fulcratus. It uses special structures to connect to their roots and take some of the water and nutrients they have collected.
Different Types of Pinewoods Lousewort
Some scientists recognize a special type of Pedicularis semibarbata called charlestonensis. This specific kind is endemic to Nevada. This means it is found only in Nevada and nowhere else in the world!
