Stats

Lifespan: 1-2 years
Size: Small
Diet: Photosynthetic
Activity: Diurnal
Social: Solitary
Biome: Temperate grassland
Range: Warm Americas
Movement: Sessile
Breeding: Seeds
Defense: None
Status: Uncommon

About

A small genus of gentian-family wildflowers from the warm grasslands of the Americas, prized as garden and cut flowers for their large, ruffled, rose-like blooms in blues, purples, pinks, and white. Wild prairie gentians open a single cupped flower; cultivated lisianthus have been bred into lush, many-petaled forms.

Life cycle

1.
seed
A dormant seed waits for water and warmth before germinating.
2.
sprout
A first shoot emerges with cotyledon leaves and a tap root reaching down.
3.
sapling
A young plant grows true leaves and a stem or trunk, putting on height each season.
4.
mature
Fully grown, flowering or fruiting at adult size.

Learn more

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Taxonomy

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Gentianales
Family: Gentianaceae
Genus: Eustoma