Yosemite tarweed facts for kids

Jensia yosemitana is a special kind of flowering plant. It belongs to the aster family, which includes many well-known flowers like sunflowers and daisies. This plant is commonly called the Yosemite tarweed.

It is found only in California, making it an endemic species. This means it grows naturally in just one specific area. You can find it scattered across the beautiful Sierra Nevada mountains and their lower hills. Some groups of these plants even live inside the famous Yosemite National Park.

What the Yosemite Tarweed Looks Like

The Yosemite tarweed is an annual herb. This means it is a plant that completes its whole life cycle in just one year. It grows from a seed, flowers, produces new seeds, and then dies, all within a single season.

Stem and Leaves

This plant has a thin stem that can grow up to 25 centimeters (about 10 inches) tall. Its leaves are covered in tiny hairs or bristles. They are quite small, usually 1 to 3 centimeters (0.4 to 1.2 inches) long. You can find these leaves all along the stem.

Flowers and Fruit

The plant produces groups of flower heads. These heads look like single flowers, but they are actually made up of many tiny flowers grouped together. They grow on thin, threadlike stalks called peduncles.

Each flower head usually has 2 to 8 yellow ray florets. These are the petal-like parts that spread out from the center. Each ray floret is about 2 millimeters (0.08 inches) long. In the center of the head, there are 1 to 7 yellow disc florets. These tiny flowers have black parts called anthers.

After the flowers bloom, the plant produces fruit. The fruit is a small, dry seed called an achene. It has a bristly or scaly top part, known as a pappus. This pappus helps the seeds to spread, often by catching the wind.