Delicate rabbit-tobacco

Gnaphalium obtusifolium Linnaeus var. micradenium Weatherby, Rhodora 25: 22. 1923; G. helleri Britton var. micradenium (Weatherby) Mahler; Pseudognaphalium helleri (Britton) Anderberg subsp. micradenium (Weatherby) Kartesz

Annuals (fragrant), 15–60 cm; taprooted or fibrous-rooted. Stems glandular-puberulent (without persistent tomentum, stipitate glands 0.1–0.2 mm, stalks narrower than gland widths. Leaf blades linear to linear-lanceolate or linear-oblanceolate, 1.5–5.5 cm × 1.5–10 mm, bases not clasping, not decurrent, margins flat, faces bicolor, abaxial white to gray, tomentose, adaxial green, both minutely stipitate-glandular. Heads in corymbiform arrays. Involucres turbinate-campanulate, 5–6 mm. Phyllaries in 4–6 series, white to tawny white (hyaline, shiny), narrowly ovate to oblong, glabrous. Pistillate florets 47–78. Bisexual florets (7–)11–20. Cypselae ridged, smooth.

Flowering Sep–Oct. Dry woods and openings, roadsides; 10–600 m; Ga., Ind., Ky., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., Mo., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Pa., S.C., Tenn., Va., Wis.

Pseudognaphalium micradenium has a more northern and Appalachian distribution than P. helleri. A report of P. micradenium for Louisiana probably was based on specimens of P. helleri. The two species differ in vestiture and other features; stems of P. micradenium are more slender than those of its close relatives.