Duration: Annual

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Herbaceous annual, erect, ascending, branching throughout, herbage wooly, with silver-gray hairs longitudinally arranged, taprooted or fibrous-rooted.

Leaves: Alternate, entire, mostly cauline, blades spatulate to oblanceolate, mostly 2-6 cm long and 2-9 mm wide, becoming linear-oblanceolate to linear distally, commonly folded along midveins, wooly with silver-gray appressed hairs, basal leaves usually withering before flowering.

Flowers: Heads discoid, the outer flowers slender and pistillate, the inner ones coarser and perfect, all fertile, apices obtuse-apiculate, corollas purple distally, involucres ovoid or campanulate, receptacles naked, the phyllaries in 5-7 series, slightly to evidently overlapping, dry and membranaceous, the outer ovate to triangular, the inner oblong, with acute or acuminate apices, reflexed, inflorescences borne in panicles, corymbs, or spikes.

Fruits: Achenes tan, to 0.5 mm. Pappus of capillary bristles.

Ecology: Found in disturbed sites, sandy or clay soils, roadsides, fields, clearing and edges of woods, and flower beds, from 0-2,000 ft (0-610 m); flowering May-July.

Distribution: Occuring in the southern-most portions of the United States, from California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, stretching east to Virginia and North Carolina.

Notes: Look for this species under Gnaphalium purpureum var. falcatum or Gnaphalium calviceps in older texts.

Ethnobotany: Unknown

Etymology: Gamochaeta is from Greek gamos, marriage, stigma, or female part, and chaite, bristle, mane, long hair, while falcata means sickle shaped.

Synonyms: Many, see Tropicos

Editor: LCrumbacher 2011