Rocky Mountain pussytoes facts for kids
Antennaria media is a small flowering plant often called Rocky Mountain pussytoes. It is part of the daisy family. This plant grows naturally across western Canada and the Western United States. You can find it from Alaska and Yukon Territory down to California and New Mexico.
Quick facts for kids Rocky Mountain pussytoes |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Genus: |
Antennaria
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| Species: |
media
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Contents
Where Rocky Mountain Pussytoes Grow
This plant loves cold places. It grows in Arctic and alpine areas. This means you can find it in very northern regions, or high up in mountains. It lives in ranges like the Rocky Mountains, Cascades, and Sierra Nevada.
What Rocky Mountain Pussytoes Look Like
Antennaria media is a perennial herb. This means it's a plant that lives for more than two years. It forms a flat, matted patch on the ground. It has special stems called stolons that spread out. Its leaves near the ground are soft and woolly.
The plant's flower stalks are usually short. They grow to about 13 centimeters (about 5 inches) tall. At the top of these stalks are several flower heads. These are actually groups of many tiny flowers.
Plant Gender
This plant is dioecious. This is a fancy word meaning that male flowers and female flowers grow on different plants. So, one plant will have only male flowers, and another plant will have only female flowers.
Seeds and Fruit
After the flowers bloom, the plant produces a fruit called an achene. This achene is small, about 6 millimeters long. It has a long, soft, feathery part called a pappus. The pappus helps the seeds float away in the wind. This allows the plant to spread its seeds to new places.
How Rocky Mountain Pussytoes Reproduce
There are different types, or subspecies, of Antennaria media. Some of these subspecies are diploid. This means they have two sets of chromosomes. These plants reproduce in the usual way, through sexual reproduction. This involves pollen from a male flower fertilizing a female flower.
Other subspecies are polyploid. This means they have more than two sets of chromosomes. These plants often reproduce using a special method called apomixis. Apomixis is like making a clone of the plant. The plant produces seeds without needing pollen or fertilization. This means the new plant is exactly like the parent plant.
