Wild tea facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Wild tea |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | |
| (unranked): | |
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| Order: | |
| Family: | |
| Subfamily: |
Asteroideae
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| Tribe: |
Coreopsideae
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| Genus: |
Thelesperma
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| Species: |
T. megapotamicum
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| Binomial name | |
| Thelesperma megapotamicum (Spreng.) Kuntze
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| Synonyms | |
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Thelesperma gracile (Torr.) A.Gray |
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Thelesperma megapotamicum is a type of flowering plant. It is also known as wild tea or rayless greenthread. This plant lives for many years, which means it's a perennial. It belongs to the aster family, which includes sunflowers and daisies. You can find it growing naturally in parts of the Americas, especially in the central United States. It can live in many different kinds of places.
What Does Wild Tea Look Like?
This plant is a perennial herb. It grows a thin, branching stem. This stem can reach about 30 to 60 centimeters (about 1 to 2 feet) tall, or even taller!
Its leaves are narrow. They are usually made up of several parts, like thin threads. These parts are only a few centimeters long.
The plant produces several flower heads. Each flower head sits in a cup-shaped part. This cup is made of special leaves called phyllaries. These phyllaries often have purple tips and white edges.
Each flower head has many small yellow or orange flowers. These are called disc florets. Sometimes, there are also one or more yellow ray florets, which look like petals. But sometimes, these ray florets are not there at all.
How People Use Wild Tea
Many Native American groups have used this plant for a long time. For example, the Hopi and Navajo people use it. They make special herbal teas from it.
They also use it as a traditional remedy. Plus, the plant can create a yellow dye. The Hopi people call this plant Hohoysi.
To make tea, the whole plant can be boiled in water. The water turns a rusty color. This colored water is then used as a tea. The Hopi people also put the plant and water into large glass jars. They place these jars in the sun to make sun tea.
In the Apache language, this plant is known as izeets'ósé.
