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

northwestern rabbit-tobacco, slender cudweed, slender false cudweed, small head cudweed, Wright's cudweed

Jersey cudweed, Jersey rabbit tobacco, red-tip rabbit-tobacco, weedy cudweed

Habit Perennials, (20–)30–70 cm; taprooted. Annuals, 15–40 cm; taprooted or fibrous-rooted.
Stems

loosely tomentose, not glandular.

loosely white-tomentose, not glandular.

Leaf

blades narrowly oblanceolate, 3–8 cm × 3–6 mm (gradually smaller distally, becoming linear), bases not clasping, decurrent 5–14 mm, margins flat, faces concolor, loosely tomentose, sessile-glandular beneath tomentum.

blades (crowded, internodes 1–5, sometimes to 10 mm) narrowly obovate to subspatulate, 1–3(–6) cm × 2–8 mm (distal smaller, oblanceolate to narrowly oblong or linear), bases subclasping, usually decurrent 1–2 mm, margins weakly revolute, faces mostly concolor to weakly bicolor, abaxial gray-tomentose, adaxial usually gray-tomentose, sometimes glabrescent, neither glandular.

Involucres

turbinate-campanulate, (4–)5–6 mm.

broadly campanulate, 3–4 mm.

Pistillate florets

35–55.

135–160.

Bisexual florets

(2–)4–7.

5–10 (corollas red-tipped).

Phyllaries

in 3–4(–5) series, whitish (hyaline or opaque, usually shiny, sometimes dull), ovate to ovate-oblong (outer broadly acute, inner rounded-apiculate), glabrous.

in 3–4 series, silvery gray to yellowish (hyaline), ovate to ovate-oblong, glabrous.

Heads

in loose to dense, corymbiform to paniculiform arrays.

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

Cypselae

ridged, densely papillate-roughened.

not evidently ridged (conspicuously dotted with whitish, papilliform hairs; pappus bristles loosely coherent basally, released in clusters or easily fragmented rings).

2n

= 14, 16, 28.

Pseudognaphalium thermale

Pseudognaphalium luteoalbum

Phenology Flowering Jun–Sep(–Oct). Flowering Apr–Oct.
Habitat Dry, sandy road banks, roadside ditches, streambeds and banks, lakeshores, granitic sand, open woods of yellow pine, Jeffrey pine, red fir, Douglas fir, mixed conifer, and mixed evergreen Roadsides, fields and pastures, ditches, streambanks, seasonal ponds, gardens, and other disturbed sites
Elevation (50–)300–2300(–2500) m ((200–)1000–7500(–8200) ft) 5–2000 m (0–6600 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
CA; ID; MT; NV; OR; UT; WA; WY; AB; BC
[WildflowerSearch map]
from FNA
AR; AZ; CA; FL; LA; NM; NV; NY; OR; TX; UT; WA; Mexico; Europe; Asia; Africa; Pacific Islands (New Zealand); Australia [Introduced in North America]
[WildflowerSearch map]
Discussion

Pseudognaphalium luteoalbum is native to Eurasia. It is similar in overall habit to P. stramineum but distinctive in its larger heads and red-tipped corollas (visible through the translucent phyllaries). Cypselae of P. luteoalbum have papilliform hairs; cypselae of other North American species of Pseudognaphalium are glabrous.

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

Source FNA vol. 19, p. 419. FNA vol. 19, p. 418.
Parent taxa Asteraceae > tribe Gnaphalieae > Pseudognaphalium 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. stramineum, P. viscosum
P. arizonicum, P. austrotexanum, P. beneolens, P. biolettii, P. californicum, P. canescens, P. helleri, P. jaliscense, P. leucocephalum, P. macounii, P. micradenium, P. microcephalum, P. obtusifolium, P. pringlei, P. ramosissimum, P. roseum, P. saxicola, P. stramineum, P. thermale, P. viscosum
Synonyms Gnaphalium thermale, Gnaphalium canescens subsp. thermale, Gnaphalium johnstonii, Gnaphalium microcephalum var. thermale, Gnaphalium microcephalum subsp. thermale, P. canescens subsp. thermale, P. microcephalum var. thermale Gnaphalium luteoalbum
Name authority (E. E. Nelson) G. L. Nesom: Sida 21: 781. (2004) (Linnaeus) Hilliard & B. L. Burtt: Bot. J. Linn. Soc. 82: 206. (1981)
Web links