Sierra mint facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Sierra mint |
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Scientific classification  |
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| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Asterids |
| Order: | Lamiales |
| Family: | Lamiaceae |
| Genus: | Pycnanthemum |
| Species: |
P. californicum
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| Binomial name | |
| Pycnanthemum californicum Torr. ex Durand
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Pycnanthemum californicum is a special kind of flowering plant in the mint family. People often call it Sierra mint, mountain mint, or California mint. It's known for its fresh, minty smell.
About the Sierra Mint
This plant is endemic to California, which means it grows naturally only in California and nowhere else in the world. It's a true Californian!
Where It Grows
The Sierra mint is native to several mountain ranges in California. You can find it in the Sierra Nevada, the Peninsular Ranges, the eastern Transverse Ranges, and the inner northern California Coast Ranges.
It likes to grow in places that are between about 1,600 and 6,200 feet (500 to 1,900 meters) high. It lives in different types of plant communities like chaparral (dense shrubs), California oak woodlands, California mixed evergreen forests, and Yellow pine forests.
What It Looks Like
Pycnanthemum californicum is a perennial herb. This means it's a plant that lives for more than two years and doesn't have a woody stem like a tree. It grows straight up, usually between 1.5 and 3 feet (0.5 to 1 meter) tall.
Its leaves and stems can be smooth or a little fuzzy, and they all have a nice, strong smell, just like other mints. The leaves grow in pairs, opposite each other on the stem. They are shaped like a spear or a narrow oval, and each one is a few centimeters long.
The flowers grow in groups, or inflorescences, around the stem, just above the top pairs of leaves. Each flower has two main parts: an upper lip that is usually whitish, and a lower lip that is often purplish. Sometimes, you can see small spots on the lower lip. This mint blooms from June all the way through September.
