Gamochaeta calviceps
Gamochaeta argyrinea
narrowleaf purple everlasting
silver cudweed, silvery cudweed, silvery everlasting
erect, ascending (usually branched ± throughout), subpannose (hairs silver-gray, longitudinally arranged).
decumbent-ascending, closely white-pannose (hairs usually individually evident, seldom forming clothlike induments).
mostly cauline, basal usually withering before flowering, blades spatulate to oblanceolate, mostly 2–6 cm × 2–9 mm (becoming linear-oblanceolate to linear distally, commonly folded along midveins), faces concolor or weakly bicolor, subpannose (hairs closely appressed).
basal and cauline, basal present through flowering, blades oblanceolate to oblanceolate-oblong or oblanceolate-obovate, 1.5–5(–8) cm × 5–12(–18) mm (gradually smaller distally), faces bicolor, abaxial closely white-pannose, adaxial sparsely arachnose (evident at 10x).
campanulate, 3–3.5 mm, bases usually glabrous or glabrate.
campanulate, 3–3.5 mm, bases sparsely arachnose.
bisexual 2–4; all corollas purple distally.
bisexual 4–5(–6); all corollas purple- to yellow-brown distally.
in 5–7 series, outer ovate-triangular, lengths 1/3–1/2 inner, apices acute-acuminate (involute and spreading to recurved), inner oblong, laminae slightly brown (not purple), apices obtuse-apiculate.
in 4–6 series, outer (tawny-transparent, never dark brown) ovate to ovate-lanceolate, lengths 1/3–4/5 inner, apices acute to acuminate, inner elliptic-oblong to oblong, laminae often purplish tinged (around stereome/lamina junction, otherwise hyaline and slightly brownish), apices truncate-rounded, apiculate (flexing slightly outward in fruit).
initially in continuous or interrupted, spiciform arrays, 2–4 cm × 8–12 mm (pressed), later in paniculiform arrays 4–18 cm (main axes usually visible between heads, peduncles usually evident).
initially in continuous, cylindric arrays 1.5–5 cm × 10–12 mm (pressed), later sometimes interrupted, 5–18 cm × 10–12 mm (pressed; producing axillary glomerules from proximal nodes).
(tan) 0.4–0.5 mm.
(tan) 0.5–0.6 mm.
Gamochaeta calviceps
Gamochaeta argyrinea
Gamochaeta calviceps is recognized by its subpannose cauline and foliar indument (perhaps intermediate between the looser tomentum of G. antillana and the tight, pannose covering of G. argyrinea) and the contrast of its spatulate proximal leaves with the much narrower cauline ones, glabrous or glabrescent involucres, and phyllaries in 5–7 series, lacking purple color, the outer and mid with acute-acuminate apices commonly becoming subulate (by inrolled margins). The distal cauline leaves usually are folded along the midveins (at least when pressed). The relatively late flowering also is distinctive. Plants on the Atlantic coastal plain usually produce 2–3 bisexual florets per head, those on the Gulf coast 3–4.
Heads of older plants are borne in paniculiform arrays resulting from development of lateral branches, the heads usually on evident peduncles and with very little tomentum at the base of the outer phyllaries, thus appearing discrete. In early-season plants, lateral branches may not have formed or lengthened and the arrays of heads may appear continuous-cylindric at stem apices; in such plants, the species can usually still be recognized by the relatively numerous, relatively shorter, axillary shoots along the main stems.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Gamochaeta argyrinea has been confused with G. purpurea, which also occurs across the coastal states of eastern United States (G. L. Nesom 2004).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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