Canadian pussytoes

not listed

N5 - Secure

SNR - Unranked

not listed

Canadian pussytoes is an evergreen woolly wildflower. It occurs across North America but is most common from Quebec to New Jersey west to Minnesota, and in Washington and British Columbia. It is fairly common in Minnesota. It is found in fields, pastures, woodland openings, and rock barrens. It grows under full sun in dry to moderately moist sandy soil.

Canadian pussytoes is an erect, 6″ to 13¾″ (15 to 35 cm) tall, perennial forb that rises on a rosette of basal leaves and a flowering stem from fibrous roots. It spreads by producing above ground runners (stolons). The stolons are leafy, densely woolly, slender, and 1¼″ to 3″ (3 to 8 cm) long. They root at the nodes, often forming colonies. The leaves along the stolons are similar to the basal leaves.

Basal leaves are ¾″ to 19⁄16″ (20 to 40 mm) long, and ¼″ to ⅜″ (6 to 9 mm) wide. The leaf blades are spatula-shaped to inversely lance-shaped. They are pointed or rounded at the tip and have an abrupt, short, sharp point at the tip (mucronate). A single vein extends from the base to the tip. The lower surface is densely covered with white, short, matted or tangled, soft, woolly hairs. The upper surface is green and hairless. The margins are untoothed. Basal leaves are often evergreen.

A flowering stem arises from the stolon of the previous year’s growth. The stem is erect, sparsely leafy, and densely covered with white woolly hairs. Stem leaves are much smaller than basal leaves. They are alternate, unstalked, linear, narrowly pointed at the tip, and ½″ to 13⁄16″ (12 to 30 mm) long. There is a pointed, bristle-like extension (arista) on the middle and upper leaves, and a short, flat or inrolled, papery extension (flag) at the tip of only the leaves near the inflorescence. Middle and other upper stem leaves are not flagged. The upper and lower surfaces are densely covered with white woolly hairs.

The inflorescence is a tight, round-topped cluster (corymb) of 3 to 7 narrow flower heads at the end of the stem. Male and female flowers are borne on separate plants. Male plants are very uncommon. When no male plants are present, fertilization of the ovule does not take place and only female plants are produced (parthenogenesis). This results in some populations being composed entirely of female plants.

The whorl of 3 to 6 or more bracts (involucre) subtending each flower head on female (pistillate) plants is ¼″ to ⅜″ (7 to 10 mm) long. The bracts of the involucre (phyllaries) are narrow, green or sometimes rose-colored at the base, and white or cream-colored at the tip. The outer bracts are loosely covered with woolly hairs. The flower heads have 20 to 100 white or pinkish, tubular disk florets and no ray florets. Pistillate florets are ⅛″ to ¼″ (4.0 to 6..5 mm) long or longer. Male (staminate) plants have numerous columns of stamens protruding above the flower head.

The fruit is an elliptic to egg-shaped, 1⁄32″ to 1⁄16″ (1.0 to 1.5 mm) long, one-seeded capsule (cypsela). It is hairless and minutely bumpy (pappilate), and there is a tuft of hairs (pappus) at the tip. On pistillate plants the pappus is ¼″ to ⅜″ (7 to 9mm).

6″ to 13¾″ (15 to 35 cm)

White to pinkish

Howell’s pussytoes (Antennaria howellii ssp. neodioica) basal leaves often have three veins, a midvein and a pair of obscure partial veins that can best be seen on the underside. The upper surface of the basal leaves may be grayish-green with sparse, long, gray hairs, or bright green and almost hairless, soon becoming hairless.

Howell’s pussytoes (Antennaria howellii ssp. petaloidea) basal leaves often have three veins, a midvein and a pair of obscure partial veins that can best be seen on the underside. The upper surface of the basal leaves is covered with gray woolly hairs but becomes hairless at maturity.

Dry to moderate moisture. Fields, pastures, woodland openings, and rock barrens. Full sun. Sandy soil.

Mid-spring to early summer

Sources

4, 7, 24, 28, 29, 30.

Native