Flora of North America species comparison

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Antennaria media

alpine pussytoes, dark pussytoes, Rocky Mountain pussytoes
Habit Dioecious or gynoecious (staminate plants rare or in equal frequency to pistillates, respectively).
Plants

5–13 cm.
Stolons

1–4 cm.
Basal leaves

1-nerved, spatulate to oblanceolate, 6–19 × 2.5–6 mm, tips mucronate, faces gray-pubescent.
Cauline leaves

linear, 5–20 mm, not flagged (apices acute).
Involucres

staminate (3.5–)4.5–6.5 mm;

pistillate 4–8 mm.
Corollas

staminate 2.5–4.5 mm;

pistillate 3–4.5 mm.
Phyllaries

distally dark brown, black, or olivaceous.
Heads

2–5(–9) in corymbiform arrays.
Cypselae

0.6–1.6 mm, glabrous or papillate;

pappi: staminate 2.5–4.5 mm;

pistillate 4–5.5 mm.
2n

= 56, 98, 112.

Antennaria media
Phenology Flowering summer.
Habitat Dry, rocky to moist alpine tundra
Elevation 1500–3800 m [4900–12500 ft]
Distribution
map from FNA
AK; AZ; CA; CO; ID; MT; NM; NV; OR; UT; WA; WY; AB; BC; NT; YT
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Antennaria media ranges from Arizona to Alaska; dioecious and gynoecious populations are encountered (R. J. Bayer and G. L. Stebbins 1987). The dioecious (sexual) populations are restricted primarily to California and Oregon (Bayer et al. 1990). The main distinction between A. media and A. alpina is flags on distal cauline leaves present in A. alpina and mostly absent in A. media (Bayer 1990d). Phyllaries of the pistillate plants in A. alpina tend to be acute; they are blunter in A. media. At some point, it may be preferable to follow W. L. Jepson ([1923–1925]) and some later authors and treat A. media as a subspecies of A. alpina. Antennaria media appears to be an autopolyploid derivative of A. pulchella; genes from A. pulchella may have introgressed into the A. alpina and A. parvifolia complexes indirectly through A. media.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Parent taxa Asteraceae > tribe Gnaphalieae > Antennaria
Sibling taxa
A. alpina, A. anaphaloides, A. arcuata, A. argentea, A. aromatica, A. corymbosa, A. densifolia, A. dimorpha, A. dioica, A. flagellaris, A. friesiana, A. geyeri, A. howellii, A. lanata, A. luzuloides, A. marginata, A. microphylla, A. monocephala, A. neglecta, A. parlinii, A. parvifolia, A. plantaginifolia, A. pulchella, A. pulcherrima, A. racemosa, A. rosea, A. rosulata, A. soliceps, A. solitaria, A. stenophylla, A. suffrutescens, A. umbrinella, A. virginica
Synonyms A. alpina var. media, A. austromontana, A. candida, A. densa, A. modesta, A. mucronata
Name authority Greene: Pittonia 3: 286. (1898)
Source FNA vol. 19, p. 411. Treatment author: Randall J. Bayer.
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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