San Joaquin bluecurls facts for kids

Quick facts for kids San Joaquin bluecurls
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Asterids
Order:	Lamiales
Family:	Lamiaceae
Genus:	Trichostema
Species:	T. ovatum
Binomial name
Trichostema ovatum Curran
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The San Joaquin bluecurls is a special kind of flowering plant. It's part of the mint family, just like the mint you might use for chewing gum or tea! This plant is quite rare.

Where San Joaquin Bluecurls Live

This plant only grows in one special place: the San Joaquin Valley in California. When we say it's 'endemic' to this area, it means you won't find it growing naturally anywhere else in the world!

It likes to live in grassy areas, like open fields. It can also grow in places where the ground has been disturbed, or in 'alkali soils.' Alkali soils are a bit salty, like the soil where plants called 'chenopods' grow.

What San Joaquin Bluecurls Look Like

The San Joaquin bluecurls plant is an annual herb. This means it grows from a seed, flowers, makes new seeds, and then dies all within one year. It can grow up to about 80 centimeters tall, which is almost as tall as a typical 12-year-old!

The whole plant has a nice smell. It's covered in soft, woolly hairs, some of which are sticky (glandular). Its leaves are shaped like pointed ovals and are about 1 or 2 centimeters long.

The flowers grow in clusters, appearing where the leaves meet the stem. Each flower has a fuzzy outer part called a calyx, made of pointed sepals. Inside is a purple, tube-shaped flower with a lip. The most interesting part might be its four long, curved stamens, which can be up to 1.6 centimeters long. These stamens stick out from the flower, giving it a unique look.

How San Joaquin Bluecurls Grow

This plant blooms from May all the way through October. It flowers the most during the hot summer months. For the seeds to sprout and start growing, the plant needs enough rain. This rain helps the seeds to 'germinate,' which means to begin to grow.