Pseudognaphalium obtusifolium L.) Hilliard & B. L. Burtt, eastern rabbit–tobacco. Annual, taprooted, rosetted, several–stemmed from base, erect with ascending branches, 40—90 cm tall; gynomonoecious; shoots with cauline leaves dark green on upper surface and densely white–woolly on lower surface (bicolored), young foliage swedelike, nonglandular hairs long, fine, but not straight, glandular–hairy, lightly scented.
Stems cylindric, to 5 mm diameter, internodes 4—7 mm long and without decurrent leaf bases, white–woolly with longitudinally oriented hairs concealing glandular hairs beneath < 0.2 mm long and having yellowish heads.
Leaves helically alternate, simple, sessile without clasping base, without stipules; blade narrowly oblanceolate to oblanceolate–linear, < 20—65 × 4.5—12 mm (fully expanded), long–tapered and inconspicuously lobed at base, entire and subtly short–wavy on margins (not inrolled), acute at tip, pinnately veined with principal veins slightly sunken on upper surface and midrib raised on lower surface, upper surface dark green, not resinous but with evenly distributed glandular hairs but with some cobwebby hairs along principal veins and sparsely on surface, lower surface densely white–woolly with concealed glandular hairs (> 10 glandular hairs/10 mm–2).
Inflorescence heads, in terminal, flat–topped arrays of condensed clusters, array to 35 mm across, of < 50 heads, each ultimate cluster having to 5 heads, head disciform, in range with 38—70+ pistillate flowers and 4—8(—11) central bisexual flowers, bracteate, white–woolly and glandular–hairy; axes ascending, with sessile, leaflike bracts, bracts subtending branch or branchlet broadly lanceolate to narrowly elliptic, < 15 mm long decreasing upward, sometimes with scarpious tip resembling a phyllary, bract subtending subsessile head ± erect, scarious, cupped–obovate, 3—4 mm long, woolly on lower (outer) surface to midpoint; involucre at anthesis bell–shaped, 5—6 × 2—4 mm with fruit aging wider at base, phyllaries many in 5—7 graded series, appressed and erect aging widely radiating in fruit; outer phyllaries ovate, 3—4 mm long, acute at tip, membranous except for short, narrow, woolly green base, middle phyllaries oblong to obovate or elliptic, to 5.5 × 1.3 mm and rounded with erect point at tip, inner phyllaries linear–oblong, ca. 5 × 0.5—0.6 mm, 1–veined, green with some long hairs aging brown below midpoint, scarious above midpoint; receptacle flat, without bractlets (paleae), with ovaries sunken in pits.
Peripheral flower pistillate, radial, ca. 0.2 mm across, 3.2—4.2 mm long; calyx (pappus) of ± 20 capillary bristles in 1 whorl, bristles 3.1—3.6 mm long, white, minutely barbed; corolla 5–lobed, ca. 3 mm long; tube cylindric, ca. 0.15 mm diameter, greenish to yellowish green; lobes acute, 0.2 mm long, yellow; stamens absent; pistil 1; ovary inferior, short sausage–shaped, 0.7—0.8 × 0.3 mm, pale yellow to light tan, glabrous, 1–chambered with 1 ovule; style ± 3.5 mm long, yellow, 2–branched, the stigmatic branches spreading.
Central flower bisexual, radial, ca. 0.4 mm across, 3.2—4.2 mm long; calyx (pappus) of ± 20 capillary bristles in 1 whorl, bristles 3.1—3.6 mm long, white, minutely barbed; corolla 5–lobed, ca. 3.5 mm long; tube cylindric, ca. 0.15 mm diameter, greenish to yellowish green; throat slightly expanded, 0.4 mm diameter; lobes ascending, acute, 0.3 mm long, yellow, with glandular hairs on outer surface in bud; stamens 5, fused to corolla tube; filaments ca. 0.5 mm long, yellow; anthers fused into cylinder surrounding style, basifixed, dithecal, ca. 1 mm long, golden yellow, with acute appendages, longitudinally dehiscent; pollen golden yellow, sticky; pistil 1; ovary inferior, short sausage–shaped, 0.3—0.5 mm long, pale yellow to light tan, glabrous, 1–chambered with 1 ovule; style 2.6—2.8 mm long, yellow, 2–branched, the stigmatic branches included, appressed.
Fruits cypselae, monomorphic, obovoid, ca. 0.7 × 0.35 mm, dark red–brown with 5 narrow ridges; pappus of ± 20 white capillary bristle deciduous.
A. C. Gibson