Antennaria rosea
Antennaria pulchella
Antennaire rosée, rosy everlasting, rosy pussytoes
beautiful pussy-toes, Sierra pussytoes
4–30 cm.
(1–)3–12 cm (stems usually stipitate-glandular).
1–7 cm.
1–4(–9) cm.
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 linear-cuneate, 6–12 × 1.5–4.5 mm, tips mucronate, faces glabrescent-scabrous to gray-pubescent (often with purple glandular hairs).
linear, 6–36 mm, usually not flagged (apices acute to subulate or with lanceolate flags).
linear, 3–11(–13) mm, usually not flagged (apices acute to acuminate), rarely distal flagged.
staminate unknown; pistillate 4–10 mm.
staminate 4–5 mm; pistillate 3.5–4.5 mm.
staminate unknown; pistillate 2.5–6 mm.
staminate 1.9–2.8 mm; pistillate 2–3 mm.
distally brown, cream, gray, green, pink, red, white, or yellow (apices acute or erose-obtuse).
(relatively wide) distally dark brown-black (sometimes light brown or whitish at very tips; apices blunt).
3–20 in corymbiform arrays.
4–6 in corymbiform arrays.
0.7–1.8 mm, glabrous or papillate;
pappi: staminate unknown; pistillate 3.5–6.5 mm.
0.7–1.3 mm, glabrous or slightly papillate;
pappi: staminate 2.5–3.5 mm; pistillate 2.5–3.5 mm.
= 42, 56, (70).
= 28 (as A. media).
Antennaria rosea
Antennaria pulchella
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.)
Antennaria pulchella is the diploid progenitor of A. media and, consequently, a progenitor of the A. alpina complex (R. J. Bayer 1990d). The A. rosea and A. parvifolia complexes also have the genome of A. pulchella, shown in the high elevation clones with dark phyllaries in these two polyploid complexes. Antennaria pulchella is differentiated from A. media by shorter pistillate or staminate corollas and shorter cauline leaves (Bayer). This sexually reproducing diploid ranges from the area around Lake Tahoe to the Mt. Whitney region (Bayer).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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 |
- Local floras:
BC, 
CA, 
OR - Local Web sites: CalFlora, CalPhotos,
Flora NW, 
MI Flora, 
MN Wildflowers, 
PNW Herbaria, 
SW CO Wildflowers, Turner Photog. 
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist (observations)
USDA Plants Database- LBJ Wildflower Center
- SEINet
- Plants of the World Online
- Encyclopedia of Life
- Wikipedia
- Google Image Search
