Plantain-leaved pussytoes, antennaire à feuilles de plantain

Gnaphalium plantaginifolium Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 2: 850. 1753; Antennaria caroliniana Rydberg; A. decipiens Greene; A. denikeana B. Boivin; A. nemoralis Greene; A. pinetorum Greene; A. plantaginifolia var. petiolata (Fernald) A. Heller

Dioecious. Plants 6.5–20(–25) cm. Stolons 2.5–7.5 cm (mostly ascending when young). Basal leaves (petiolate) 3–5(–7)-nerved, obovate to suborbiculate, 35–75 × 15–35 mm, tips minutely mucronate, abaxially tomentose, adaxially green-glabrescent to gray-pubescent. Cauline leaves linear, 6.5–35 mm, distal flagged. Heads 4–17(–30) in tight corymbiform arrays. Involucres: staminate 5–7(–8) mm; pistillate 5–7 mm. Phyllaries distally white. Corollas: staminate 2–3.5 mm; pistillate 3–4 mm. Cypselae 0.5–1.6 mm, slightly papillate; pappi: staminate 2.5–4 mm; pistillate 3.5–5.5 mm. 2n = 28.

Flowering mid–late spring. Dry, open, deciduous woodlands, tops of banks, ridges, and bluffs, sandstone formations, slopes in openings in woodlands; 0–1500 m; Man., N.B., N.S., Que.; Ala., Ark., Conn., Del., Fla., Ga., Ill., Ind., Iowa, Ky., Maine, Md., Mass., Minn., Miss., Mo., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Okla., Pa., R.I., S.C., Tenn., Vt., Va., W.Va., Wis.

Antennaria plantaginifolia is a diploid progenitor of the A. parlinii complex and is similar to that species except for smaller heads and adaxially gray-pubescent basal leaves (R. J. Bayer and G. L. Stebbins 1982; Bayer 1985b; Bayer and D. J. Crawford 1986). It is a diploid ancestor of the A. howellii complex. It is found in the Appalachian region; disjunct populations occur in the driftless area of Wisconsin and Minnesota (Bayer and Stebbins).