Gnaphalium multicaule Willdenow, Sp. Pl. 3: 1888. 1803, not Lamarck (1788); G. strictum Roxburgh.

Herbs, annual, dwarf, erect to decumbent, densely white lanate-tomentose, especially in upper part. Stems slender, simple or more commonly much branched, 8-25 cm tall, 0.5-1.5 mm in diam. Leaves sessile, grayish green, spatulate or oblanceolate-oblong, 1.5-4.5 cm × 3-8 mm, thinly appressed tomentose on both surfaces, margin and lower midribs sometimes flushed with purple, base narrowed, petioliform, margin wavy, apex obtuse and apiculate. Capitula 2-5, arranged in a spike to 2 cm, at tips of stems and branches, campanulate, 2.5-3 × 2-2.5 mm, densely lanate to 2/3 from base. Phyllaries 3-seriate, loosely imbricate, gradate, with pale brown apex, red-purple middle, and green base, these becoming brown when dry, elliptic-ovate or elliptic to linear-oblong, 1.6-2.2 × 0.5-0.8 mm, scarious, apex acute. Receptacle ca. 1.3 mm in diam., pitted. Outer florets many; corolla greenish yellow, filiform, ca. 1.2 mm, apex minutely 2- or 3-lobed, flushed with purple. Central florets 5 or 6, greenish yellow, tubular, ca. 1.5 × 0.5 mm, 5-toothed at apex, teeth flushed with purple. Stamens yellow, ca. 0.6 mm; anthers sagittate at base, connate into a tube around style. Style white, ca. 1.6 mm; style branches linear, flushed with orange-yellow; ovary olivaceous, cylindric, ca. 0.5 mm. Achenes pale brown, oblong-rectangular, ca. 0.5 mm, minutely punctuate. Pappus whitish, ca. 1.2 mm, bristles 5-8, distinct, falling separately. Fl. Jan-Apr. 2n = 14.

Similar to Gamochaeta pensylvanica, this species differs by its more compact habit, oblanceolate leaves, and free, separately deciduous pappus bristles more dilated at apex.

A pantropical weed, in moist sunny places at roadsides, in grasslands, and also in and around cultivated fields. Fujian, Guangdong, Guizhou, Hainan, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [India, Japan, Pakistan, Thailand; tropical and subtropical Africa, tropical America, Australia].