Antennaria dioica

(Linnaeus) Gaertner

Fruct. Sem. Pl. 2: 410. 1791.

Common names: Stoloniferous pussytoes
Basionym: Gnaphalium dioicum Linnaeus Sp. Pl. 2: 850. 1753
Synonyms: Antennaria hyperborea D. Don Antennaria insularis Greene
Treatment appears in FNA Volume 19. Treatment on page 406. Mentioned on page 389, 390, 395.

Dioecious. Plants 3–10 cm. Stolons 2–5 cm. Basal leaves 1-nerved, spatulate or rhombic-spatulate, 3–18 × 3–6 mm, tips mucronate, abaxial faces gray-tomentose, adaxial green-glabrous. Cauline leaves linear, 7–13 mm, not flagged (apices acute). Heads 3–7 in corymbiform arrays. Involucres: staminate 5–6.5 mm; pistillate 5–7 mm. Phyllaries distally dark pink to light pink or white. Corollas: staminate 3–4 mm; pistillate 4–5 mm. Cypselae 0.5–1 mm, papillate; pappi: staminate 3.5–4.5 mm; pistillate 5–6 mm. 2n = 28.


Phenology: Flowering summer.
Habitat: Dry slopes on tundra
Elevation: 0–600 m

Distribution

V19-654-distribution-map.gif

Alaska (Aleutian Islands), Eurasia.

Discussion

Antennaria dioica ranges from the British Isles to Japan and into the Aleutian Islands (R. J. Bayer 2000). It is characterized by glabrous adaxial leaf faces and distally pink or white phyllaries. The circumscription of A. dioica in North America has long been debated; A. marginata of southwestern states bears a remarkable similarity to A. dioica. DNA sequence data (Bayer et al. 1996) indicate that the two taxa are not sisters; they are only distantly related. They are allopatric. Antennaria dioica may be a sexual progenitor of the A. parvifolia complex.

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

None.