Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

FIELD PUSSY-TOES

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Antennaria neglecta Greene

Konza Prairie, Riley County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: 2-12 inches

Family: Asteraceae - Sunflower Family

Flowering Period: March, April, May

Stems:

Flowering stems erect, white-woolly.

Leaves:

Mostly basal, simple, stalked, spatulate, 1 to 2.5 inches long, 1/4 to 3/4 inch wide, dark green and nearly glabrous above, white-woolly beneath, 1 main rib; margins entire; tips rounded to pointed; stem leaves alternate, sessile, linear, less than 1/2 inch long, tips often curled.

Inflorescences:

Cyme-like clusters, dense to somewhat open, few to many heads, terminal.

Flowers:

Male and female flowers on separate plants; female inflorescences sometimes elongate; heads 1/4 to 1/2 inch in diameter; bracts narrow lanceolate, overlapping, brownish, tips whitish; ray florets absent; disk florets white, almost hidden by numerous hair-like bristles; staminate inflorescences with purplish brown anthers that protrude from florets, heads appearing spotted.

Fruits:

Achenes, tiny, cylindric, olive-green, tipped with white bristles, enclosing small seed.

Habitat:

Dry prairies, pastures, old fields, and open wooded slopes.

Distribution:

East 3/4 of Kansas.

Comments:

Field pussy-toes forms colonies via long, trailing stolons. A patch is usually composed of either all female or all male flowers. The bristles on the fruits give the plant a fuzzy appearance when mature.

See also Parlin's pussy-toes

Field pussy-toes leaves