Kingdom: Plantae

Phylum: Magnoliophyta -- flowering plants

Class: Magnoliosida -- dicots

Family: Asteraceae -- sunflower

Common Name: rosy pussytoes, littleleaf pussytoes

Species Code: ANRO2

Origin: Native to open meadows to open forest in western North America from Alaska to California east to Saskatchewan and New Mexico.

Rare: no

Form: forb, mat forming, white lanulate throughout, stoloniferous.

Duration: perennial

Habitat Type: prairie, dry forest

Wetland Indicator Status: not listed

Leaves: white lanulate, basal leaves 15-27 cm long, spatulate, sharp pointed; cauline leaves similar, not much reduced upward, becoming lanceolate to linear.

Mature height: 8-16 inches

Flowers: white to pink, staminate plants rare, heads in a compact cyme. Pistillate plants similar with the bracts white or pink tipped.

Flower color: pink

Bloom starts on: May

Bloom ends on: June

Fruit: achene, 1.3-1.5 mm long, linear, brown, glabrous, with a pappus of capillary bristles 3.5-6.5 mm long.

Characteristics:
A. rosea in St. John 1963, Piper & Beattie 1914, Davis 1953.
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.
At one time it was proposed to include A. rosea in A. microphylla, but many taxonomists recognize them as distinct species.
8,000,000 seeds/lb (Hassell et al 1996).
x=7 (University of British Columbia 2003).
2n=42,56,70 (Baldwin et al 2004, Flora of North America Editorial Committee 1993+).
Often apomictic (Chambers 1998).
Plants are dioecious but populations usually consist of all pistillate plants (Baldwin et al 2004). Staminate plants are rare (Flora of North America Editorial Committee 1993+). Staminate plants are usually found only in low elevation populations (Davis 1953).
Polyploidy is present.
Some native peoples used the leaves of A. rosea in smoking mixtures and for ceremonial purposes.
Dioecy ensures xenogamy.
Seeds are windborne.

Comments:

Sun requirement: full

Soil moisture: mesic

Sowing time: fall

Transplant time: spring

Stratification: cold moist

Seed harvest: difficult

Seed first harvest: no information available

Planting duration: no information available

Seed size: very small

Seed harvest date: July

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

Alternate Species: microphylla

Propagation:
3 protocols in the Native Plant Network:
Glacier National Park, Montana
Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado
University of Kentucky

Other Propagation Information:
A. rosea had high germination in the dark without pretreatment (Pelton 1956).
Reproduces both sexually by seed and vegetatively by stolons.

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 7/20/09 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

Davis, Ray J. 1952. Flora of Idaho. Wm. C. Brown, Dubuque, Iowa. 827 pp.

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/

Hassell, Wendell, W. Rocky Beavers, Steve Ouellette, and Thomas Mitchell. 1996. Seeding Rate Statistics for Native and Introduced Species. US Dept of Interior and USDA, NRCS. Denver, CO.

Pelton, John. 1956. A Study of Seed Dormancy in Eighteen Species of High Altitude Colorado Plants. Butler University Botanical Studies 13:74-84.

Piper, C.V., and R.K. Beattie. 1914. The Flora of Southeastern Washington and Adjacent Idaho. Lancaster, PA: Press of the New Era Printing Company. 296 pp.

Sorensen, J.T., and D.J. Holden. 1974. Germination of Native Prairie Forb Seeds. Journal of Range Management 27:123-126.

St. John, Harold. 1963. Flora of Southeastern Washington and of Adjacent Idaho. 3rd edition. Outdoor Pictures. Escondido, CA.

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.

Links:
Plant Profile from the USDA PLANTS Database
Species information from the US Forest Service Fire Effects Information System
Species description from Flora of North America
Species information from the University of Washington Herbarium