Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses - Woolly cotton-flower

WOOLLY COTTON-FLOWER

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Gossypianthus lanuginosus (Poir. ) Moq.

[=Guilleminea lanuginosa (Poir. ) Hook.]

Sumner County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: Prostrate

Family: Amaranthaceae - Amaranth Family

Flowering Period: June, July, August, September

Stems:

Much-branched, 4 to 28 inches long, pilose to villous or lanate.

Leaves:

Basal and cauline, opposite; basal with petiole 1/5 to 4/5 inch, blade linear to linear-oblanceolate or spatulate, 3/5 to 4 inches long, 1/12 to 3/5 inch wide, base tapered, margins entire, tip acute, without spine-like bristle at tip; cauline with petiole 1/25 to 1/5 inch, blade ovate to elliptic or oblong, 1/5 to 1 inch long, 1/25 to 3/5 inch wide, base cordate to truncate, margins entire, tip acute, without spine-like bristle at tip, surfaces glabrous or sparsely to densely pilose or strigose.

Inflorescences:

Axillary glomerules, 6-12-flowered; bracts 2, membranous, without spine-like bristle at tip.

Flowers:

Bisexual; tepals 5, distinct, green, oblong-lanceolate, 1/10 to 1/6 inch, apex acuminate, woolly; stamens 5, fused basally; style 1; stigmas 2-lobed.

Fruits:

Utricles, ovoid, 1/18 to 1/12 inch; seeds brown, lenticular-orbicular.

Habitat:

Salt marshes, alluvial mud flats

Distribution:

In Arkansas Lowlands of extreme southern Kansas

Origin:

Native