The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Antennaire rosée, rosy everlasting, rosy pussytoes

one-head pussytoes, pygmy pussytoes, single-head pussytoes

Habit Gynoecious (staminate plants uncommon). Dioecious or gynoecious (staminates uncommon or in equal frequencies as pistillates, respectively).
Plants

4–30 cm.

5–13 cm (stems usually stipitate-glandular).

Stolons

1–7 cm.

2–4 cm.

Basal leaves

1-nerved, 8–40 × 2–10 mm, spatulate, oblanceolate, or cuneate, tips mucronate, faces usually gray-pubescent, adaxial sometimes green-glabrous.

1-nerved, spatulate to narrowly spatulate or oblanceolate, 9–18 × 2–4 mm, tips mucronate, abaxial faces tomentose, adaxial glabrous or green-glabrescent, or both gray-pubescent.

Cauline leaves

linear, 6–36 mm, usually not flagged (apices acute to subulate or with lanceolate flags).

linear, 4–11 mm, flagged.

Involucres

staminate unknown; pistillate 4–10 mm.

staminate 5–7 mm; pistillate 5–8 mm.

Corollas

staminate unknown; pistillate 2.5–6 mm.

staminate 2.5–3.5 mm; pistillate 3.5–4 mm.

Phyllaries

distally brown, cream, gray, green, pink, red, white, or yellow (apices acute or erose-obtuse).

distally brown, dark brown, black, or olivaceous.

Heads

3–20 in corymbiform arrays.

usually borne singly (rarely 2–3).

Cypselae

0.7–1.8 mm, glabrous or papillate;

pappi: staminate unknown; pistillate 3.5–6.5 mm.

1–1.3 mm, usually glabrous;

pappi: staminate 3–4 mm (none in gynoecious populations); pistillate 4–5 mm.

2n

= 42, 56, (70).

= 28, 56, 60?, 70.

Antennaria rosea

Antennaria monocephala

Distribution
from FNA
AK; AZ; CA; CO; ID; ME; MI; MN; MT; ND; NM; NV; OR; SD; UT; WA; WY; AB; BC; MB; NL; NT; NU; ON; QC; SK; YT
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AK; MT; WY; AB; BC; NL; NT; NU; QC; YT; Russian Far East (Chukotka Peninsula)
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Subspecies 4 (4 in the flora).

Antennaria rosea is the most widespread Antennaria of North America, occurring in dry to moist habitats from near sea level to the alpine zone. The A. rosea polyploid agamic complex is one of the more morphologically diverse complexes of North American Antennaria. It occurs from the western cordillera of North America from southern California, Arizona, and New Mexico north to subarctic Alaska and east to Greenland and, disjunctly, in the Canadian maritime provinces, eastern Quebec, and immediately north of and adjacent to Lake Superior (R. J. Bayer et al. 1991). Antennaria chilensis (including A. chilensis var. magellanica) is a Patagonian endemic that morphologically fits within the circumscription of A. rosea and may well be an amphitropical disjunct member of the complex.

Antennaria rosea is taxonomically confusing; it includes agamospermous microspecies that have been recognized as distinct taxonomic species. Morphometric and isozyme analyses have demonstrated that the primary source of morphologic variability in the complex derives from six sexually reproducing progenitors, A. aromatica, A. corymbosa, A. pulchella, A. microphylla, A. racemosa, and A. umbrinella (R. J. Bayer 1989b, 1990b, 1990c). Additionally, three other sexually reproducing species, A. marginata, A. suffrutescens, and A. rosulata, may have contributed to the genetic complexity of the A. rosea complex (Bayer 1990b). Here, four reasonably distinct subspecies are recognized within the complex.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Subspecies 2 (2 in the flora).

It seems reasonable to follow in part E. Hultén’s (1968) broad concept of Antennaria monocephala (R. J. Bayer 1991). Hultén circumscribed it as containing three subspecies. The sexual phase of A. monocephala (i.e., subsp. monocephala and subsp. philonipha) is known from southern Alaska, south of the Brooks Range, and to Yukon Territory and adjacent areas of the Northwest Territories and across the Bering Strait on the Chukotka Peninsula. Within his concept of A. monocephala, Hultén also circumscribed the presumably autopolyploid apomictic form of the species as A. monocephala subsp. angustata, thereby extending the range of the species across the Canadian arctic into Greenland and down the western Cordillera into Montana and Wyoming.

Antennaria monocephala subsp. monocephala is an amphimictic progenitor of the A. alpina agamic complex, as well as the sexual progenitor of the apomicts of subsp. angustata.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Key
1. Basal leaves 20–40 mm; phyllaries distally usually green, pink, red or white, seldom brown
subsp. rosea
1. Basal leaves 8–20 mm; phyllaries distally brown, cream, gray, green, pink, red, white, or yellow
→ 2
2. Pistillate: involucres 4–6.5 mm, corollas 2.5–4, pappi 3.5–5; cauline leaves 6–20 mm (tips subulate); phyllaries usually distally brown, sometimes cream, gray, or yellow
subsp. confinis
2. Pistillate: involucres 6.5–10 mm, corollas 3.5–6 mm, pappi 5–6.5 mm; cauline leaves 6–19 or 9–26 mm (tips sometimes with flat, lanceolate scarious appendages); phyllaries distally brown, green, pink, red, or white
→ 3
3. Plants 19–30 cm; cauline leaves 9–26 mm (proximalmost usually 19+ mm); heads usu- ally 6–12
subsp. arida
3. Plants 4–17 cm; cauline leaves 6–19 mm (proximalmost usually less than 19 mm); heads usually 3–5
subsp. pulvinata
1. Plants gynoecious (staminate plants unknown)
subsp. angustata
1. Plants dioecious (staminates and pistillates in equal frequencies in populations)
subsp. monocephala
Source FNA vol. 19, p. 408. FNA vol. 19, p. 411.
Parent taxa Asteraceae > tribe Gnaphalieae > Antennaria 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. media, A. microphylla, A. monocephala, A. neglecta, A. parlinii, A. parvifolia, A. plantaginifolia, A. pulchella, A. pulcherrima, A. racemosa, A. rosulata, A. soliceps, A. solitaria, A. stenophylla, A. suffrutescens, A. umbrinella, A. virginica
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. media, A. microphylla, 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
Subordinate taxa
A. rosea subsp. arida, A. rosea subsp. confinis, A. rosea subsp. pulvinata, A. rosea subsp. rosea
A. monocephala subsp. angustata, A. monocephala subsp. monocephala
Synonyms A. alpina var. monocephala
Name authority Greene: Pittonia 3: 281. (1898) de Candolle: in A. P. de Candolle and A. L. P. P. de Candolle, Prodr. 6: 269. (1838)
Web links