Gnaphalium palustre Nutt.
Family: Asteraceae
Western Marsh Cudweed,  more...
[Filaginella palustris (Nutt.) Holub]
Gnaphalium palustre image
Zoya Akulova  

Annuals, (1-)3-15(-30) cm; taprooted or fibrous-rooted. Stems commonly with decumbent branches produced from bases, densely or loosely and persistently woolly-tomentose. Leaf blades spatulate to oblanceolate-oblong, 1-3.5 cm × 3-8(-10) mm. Bracts subtending heads oblanceolate to obovate, 4-12 × 1.5-4 mm, shorter than or surpassing glomerules. Heads in capitate glomerules (at stem tips and in distalmost axils). Involucres 2.5-4 mm. Phyllaries brownish, bases woolly, the inner narrowly oblong with white (opaque), blunt apices. 2n = 14.

Flowering May-Oct. Arroyos, sandy streambeds, pond edges, potholes, other moist, open sites; 100-2900 m; Alta., B.C., Sask.; Ariz., Calif., Colo., Idaho, Mont., Nebr., Nev., N.Mex., N.Dak., Oreg., S.Dak., Utah, Wash., Wyo.; Mexico.

FNA 2006, Wiggins 1964, Kearney and Peebles 1969

Duration: Annual

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Low annual, commonly much branched at base with erect or ascending stems 10-25 cm long, herbage loosely floccose-lanate.

Leaves: Wool persistent on stems but often more or less deciduous from spatulate to linear-spatulate leaves, these 5 mm wide and 3 cm long but usually smaller, uppermost ones subtending and exceeding heads, usually lanceolate to oblong.

Flowers: Heads in dense subglobose glomerules at tips of branchlets, each 2-3 mm high, involucral bracts deeply embedded in loose wool, only scarious tips showing, scarious part usually obtuse, often denticulate; flowers and pappus bristles about equaling longer involucral bracts; pappus falling separately or in groups.

Fruits: Cypselae 0.45-0.55 mm, papillate.

Ecology: Found along streams, grassy plains and on valley floors from 1,000-5,000 ft ( 305-1524 m); flowers March-October.

Distribution: Alberta and British Colombia, CAN; south through NM, AZ, and CA, to Baja California, MEX.

Notes: Diagnostics for this plant are the heads clustered at the tips of the stem and branches and the loosely floccose-woolly herbage.

Ethnobotany: Unknown for this species, but others in the genus have medicinal use.

Etymology: Gnaphalium is derived from the Greek gnaphalon, a lock of wool, and palustre means growing in marshes.

Synonyms: Filaginella palustris

Editor: SBuckley, 2010

Gnaphalium palustre image
Zoya Akulova  
Gnaphalium palustre image
Gnaphalium palustre image
Keir Morse  
Gnaphalium palustre image
Keir Morse  
Gnaphalium palustre image
Keir Morse  
Gnaphalium palustre image
Keir Morse  
Gnaphalium palustre image
Barry Breckling  
Gnaphalium palustre image
Barry Breckling  
Gnaphalium palustre image
Barry Breckling  
Gnaphalium palustre image
Zoya Akulova  
Gnaphalium palustre image
Zoya Akulova