Gnaphalium purpureum L.
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Authority
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.
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Family
Asteraceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Thinly woolly annual or biennial 1–4 dm; lowest lvs spatulate or oblanceolate, rounded at the tip, generally mucronate, to 10 × 2 cm, often forming a persistent basal cluster or rosette; heads numerous in a terminal, somewhat leafy-bracteate, spiciform-thyrsoid, seldom branched, sometimes interrupted infl; invol 3–5 mm, woolly below, its bracts imbricate, mostly acute to acuminate, light brown, often tinged with anthocyanin; pappus-bristles united at base, deciduous in a ring; achenes papillate; 2n=14, 28. Sandy soil and waste places; Me. to B.C., s. to Mex. and S. Amer., more common southwards. May–Oct. The widespread, polymorphic var. purpureum has the lvs, except the uppermost, oblanceolate to spatulate, tending to be obviously greener and less hairy on the upper surface than on the lower. (G. pensylvanicum; G. peregrinum; G. spathulatum) The more stable var. falcatum (Lam.) Torr. & A. Gray, occurring from Va. s., has the lvs, except the lowermost, all linear or merely linear-oblanceolate, tending to be about equally hairy on both sides. (G. falcatum; G. calviceps)
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Common Names
purple cudweed