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

cotton-batting cudweed, cotton-batting false cudweed, cotton-batting-plant

Habit Annuals or biennials, 30–60(–80) cm; taprooted.
Stems

(1+ from base, erect to ascending) loosely tomentose, not glandular.

Leaf

blades (crowded, internodes usually 1–5, sometimes to 10 mm) oblong to narrowly oblanceolate or subspatulate, 2–8(–9.5) cm × 2–5(–10) mm (smaller distally, narrowly lanceolate to linear), bases subclasping, usually not decurrent, sometimes decurrent 1–2 mm, margins flat or slightly revolute, faces concolor, loosely and persistently gray-tomentose, not glandular.

Involucres

subglobose, 4–6 mm.

Pistillate florets

160–200.

Bisexual florets

[8–]18–28.

Phyllaries

in 4–5 series, whitish (often yellowish with age, hyaline, shiny), ovate to oblong-obovate, glabrous.

Heads

in terminal glomerules (1–2 cm diam.).

Cypselae

weakly, if at all, ridged (otherwise smooth or papillate-roughened, glabrous, without papilliform hairs; pappus bristles loosely coherent basally, released in clusters or easily fragmented rings).

2n

= 28.

Pseudognaphalium stramineum

Phenology Flowering Mar–Oct.
Habitat Sandy fields, streamsides, washes, swales, dunes, chaparral slopes, roadsides, fields, disturbed places, moist disturbed places
Elevation 10–1600 m (0–5200 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AZ; CA; CO; ID; MT; NC; NE; NM; NV; NY; OK; OR; SC; TX; UT; VA; WA; WY; BC; Mexico; South America
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Pseudognaphalium stramineum is probably native from South America to western North America; it is adventive in sandy fields on the Atlantic coastal plain, where it flowers May–Aug.

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

Source FNA vol. 19, p. 418.
Parent taxa Asteraceae > tribe Gnaphalieae > Pseudognaphalium
Sibling taxa
P. arizonicum, P. austrotexanum, P. beneolens, P. biolettii, P. californicum, P. canescens, P. helleri, P. jaliscense, P. leucocephalum, P. luteoalbum, P. macounii, P. micradenium, P. microcephalum, P. obtusifolium, P. pringlei, P. ramosissimum, P. roseum, P. saxicola, P. thermale, P. viscosum
Synonyms Gnaphalium stramineum, Gnaphalium chilense, Gnaphalium chilense var. confertifolium, Gnaphalium gossypinum, Gnaphalium lagopodioides, Gnaphalium proximum, Gnaphalium sulphurescens
Name authority (Kunth) Anderberg: Opera Bot. 104: 148. (1991)
Web links