Gnaphalium japonicum auct. non Thunb.: Ying, Coloured Ill. Fl. Taiwan 6: 665, photo 1642. 1998.
Annual erect herbs. Stems branched from base, 15-40 cm tall, gray or dull gray-green villous. Basal leaves short lived, withering at anthesis; cauline leaves dull gray-green silky on both surfaces, linear to narrowly elliptic, 1.5-7×0.2-0.4 cm, margins entire or wavy, villous. Heads in loose terminal and stalked axillary spikes or panicles; subtending leaves 1-3, 1-6 cm long. Heads 3.5×2.5-3 mm when dry, woolly at base only. Outer involucral bracts ovate, short acute to acuminate, 2-3×1 mm; inner ones brownish, sometime tinged purplish, lanceolate, apex obtuse to acute, mucronate, scarious toward margins, 3-3.2×0.8 mm long. Outer florets many, filiform, corolla 2.1-2.3 mm long; central florets 2 or 3, corolla 1.6-1.7 mm long. Achenes elliptic, ca. 0.5 mm long. Pappus ca. 2.5 mm, connate at base into a ring.
TAIPEI: Tanshui, Peng 12674. TAOYUAN: Shalun, Peng 7710. HSINCHU: Lienhuashih, Peng 11516.
Probably native to South America and adventive in the United States and Japan. Taiwan, seasides, sandy beaches and waste fields.
