Kingdom: Plantae

Phylum: Magnoliophyta -- flowering plants

Class: Magnoliopsida -- dicots

Family: Asteraceae -- sunflower

Common Name: woodrush pussytoes

Species Code: ANLU2

Origin: Native to open, dry places from southern British Columbia south to California and west to Montana and Colorado.

Rare: no

Form: forb from a woody caudex, plants densely grey wooly throughout.

Duration: perennial

Longevity: long

Habitat Type: prairie

Wetland Indicator Status: not listed

Leaves: densely grey wooly, basal leaves 4-8 cm long, linear-oblanceolate, generally petiolate; cauline leaves gradually reduced upward, becoming linear, sessile.

Mature height: 6-14 inches

Flowers: dioecious, white, staminate and pistillate heads similar, numerous, discoid, borne in rounded cymes, pistillate flowers slightly larger.

Flower color: white

Bloom: May, June

Bloom starts on: mid-May

Bloom ends on: mid-June

Fruit: achene, ellipsoid, glabrous, brown, 1-1.3 mm long; female pappus of capillary bristles, 2 mm long, male pappus clavate (club-shaped), barbellate.

Characteristics:
Antennaria as a genus is highly variable and many species are at least partially apomictic while others reproduce sexually. Intergradation between species is common and a large number of species have been proposed at one time or another, resulting in a long list of synonyms for many of the species that are now recognized.
Reproduces sexually by seed.
7,000,000 seeds/lb (USDA NRCS Plants Database 2009).
Perennating organ is a caudex.
2n=28 (Flora of North America editorial Committee, 1993, Baldwin et al 2004).
x=7 (University of British Columbia 2003).
Apomixis and polyploidy are known in the genus (Chambers 1998), but A. luzuloides is "regularly sexual" (Hitchcock et al 1969).
Plants are dioecious. Dioecy ensures xenogamy.
Seeds are dispersed by wind.

Sun requirement: full

Soil moisture: dry

Precipitation: 14-28 inches (USDA NRCS Plants Database 2009).

Sowing time: fall

Transplant time: spring

Stratification: No information is available.

Seed harvest: difficult

Seed first harvest: second season

Seed cleaning: difficult

Seed insect problem: none noted

Seed shatter: medium

Seed size: small

Seed comments: Seeds are windborne.

Herbaria: Specimen data and digital resources from The Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria

Propagation:
No information is available for A. luzuloides. Some members of the genus respond to pretreatments, while others do not. A. luzuloides probably needs lengthy cold moist stratification.

References:
Baldwin, B.G., S. Boyd, B.J. Ertter, D.J. Keil, R.W. Patterson, T.J. Rosatti, and D.H. Wilken (eds). 2004. Jepson Online Interchange for California Floristics. University and Jepson Herbaria, University of California, Berkeley, CA. Accessed 7/18/09 online at http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/interchange.html

Chambers, Kenton L. 1998. Cherchez les hommes (In Antennaria, boys are a minority). Oregon Flora Newsletter. 4(3) Oregon State University, October 1998. Available online at http://www.oregonflora.org/ofn/v4n3/antennaria.html

Flora of North America Editorial Committee, eds. 1993+. Flora of North America North of Mexico. 7+ vols. New York and Oxford. Oxford University Press. Online at http://www.fna.org/FNA/

Hitchcock, C. Leo, Arthur Cronquist, Marion Ownbey, and J.W. Thompson. 1969. Vascular Plants of the Pacific Northwest. University of Washington Press. Seattle, WA. 5 vol.

University of British Columbia. 2003. British Columbia Flora. University of British Columbia Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research. Online at http://www.bcflora.org/ Accessed 1/1/06.

USDA, NRCS. 2009. The PLANTS Database (http://plants.usda.gov, 13 July 2009). National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.

Links:
Plant Profile from the USDA PLANTS Database
Species description from Flora of North America
Species information from the University of Washington Herbarium