Rabbit-tobacco

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Rabbit-tobacco

Rabbit-tobacco

Rabbit-tobacco

Rabbit-tobacco

Rabbit-tobacco

Rabbit-tobacco

Morphology

Stem

Erect, simple or branching from base, very leafy, densely white to gray woolly.

Leaves

Rosette leaves spatulate, 1/8 to 1/4 inch long, soon disappearing; stem leaves alternate, ascending or appressed, spoon-shaped to narrowly oblanceolate, 1/8 to 3/5 inch long, less than 1/6 inch wide, densely white to gray woolly; margins entire; tips blunt.

Inflorescence

Heads inconspicuous, oblong or spindle-shaped, sessile in small, compact clusters; clusters densely white to gray woolly, terminal on stem and branches.

Flower

True involucre absent; ultimate cluster of heads subtended by leaves 1/4 to 1/2 inch long; receptacle slightly raised to somewhat conical; chaff appearing as bracts exceeding heads in length, conspicuously protruding; ray florets absent; outer florets pistillate, fertile, corolla minute, tubular; central florets few, corolla 4-toothed.

Fruit

Achenes, tiny, oblong-elliptic, compressed, yellowish-brown; pappus absent.

Ecology

Habitat

Prairies, pastures, and stream valleys; dry, clayey or rocky, limestone soils.

Distribution

West 1/2 of Kansas.