Torrey's four-nerve daisy facts for kids

Torrey's four-nerve daisy, also known as Tetraneuris torreyana, is a beautiful wild plant. It belongs to the sunflower family, just like the big sunflowers you might see in fields! This plant is native to North America and is found in the western parts of the United States.

Torrey's Four-Nerve Daisy: A Western Wildflower

This special daisy grows in several western states of the USA. You can find it in places like southern Montana, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming. It's a tough plant that thrives in these areas.

What This Daisy Looks Like

Tetraneuris torreyana is a type of plant called a perennial herb. This means it lives for more than two years and its stems are not woody like a tree. It can grow up to 15 cm (5.9 in) tall, which is about the height of a small ruler.

The plant has a special underground part called a caudex. This caudex is like a thick, short stem that stays underground. From this caudex, many stems can grow above the ground. Sometimes, one plant can have as many as 40 stems!

Its Bright Flowers

Each Torrey's four-nerve daisy plant can produce many flower heads, sometimes up to 40. Each flower head looks like a small sun. It has two kinds of flowers:

• Ray flowers: These are the petal-like flowers around the edge, usually 7 to 14 of them. They are bright yellow.
• Disc flowers: These are the tiny flowers packed together in the center of the flower head. There can be anywhere from 25 to 150 yellow disc flowers in one head.

This combination of ray and disc flowers gives the daisy its classic, cheerful look.