Slender snake-cotton

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Slender snake-cotton leaf

Slender snake-cotton inflorescence

Slender snake-cotton

Slender snake-cotton

Slender snake-cotton leaves

Slender snake-cotton

Morphology

Stem

Erect to nearly prostrate, slender, simple or commonly much-branched at base; branches ascending or somewhat trailing on ground, densely or sparsely white-woolly or gray-woolly, 1/25 to 1/8 inch thick.

Leaves

Opposite, sessile or short-stalked, entire, few, mostly below middle of stem, often clustered near base, linear to narrowly lanceolate or oblanceolate, .8 to 4.8 inches long, .1 to .5 inch wide; surfaces silky or woolly; tip pointed.

Inflorescence

Spikes, .3 to 1.2 inches long, .2 to .4 inch in diameter, resembling pine cones, grayish-woolly when fresh; lateral spikes sessile.

Flower

Inconspicuous, sessile, subtended by membrane-like bract and 2 bractlets; bractlets nearly circular, sometimes pointed, white, yellowish, brownish, or black; calyces 5-lobed, conical, 1/8 to 1/6 inch long, densely woolly; calyx lobes oblong-linear, blunt or pointed, nearly smooth; petals absent; stamens 5; filaments united into tube as long as calyx.

Fruit

Flask-shaped, 1-seeded, densely white-woolly, with 2 lateral rows of spines; seeds tiny, lens-shaped, yellowish- or reddish-brown.

Ecology

Habitat

Sandy prairies and pastures, stream banks, roadsides, fallow fields, open sandy or rocky disturbed sites.

Distribution

Throughout Kansas

Additional Notes