3.
Omalotheca sylvatica
(Linnaeus) Schultz-Bipontinus & F. W. Schultz in F. W. Schultz, Arch. Fl. 311. 1861.
Woodland Arctic-cudweed, gnaphale des bois
Gnaphalium sylvaticum
Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 2: 856. 1753
Plants
10—70 cm.
Leaves
basal and cauline; blades 1-nerved, linear to narrowly oblanceolate or lanceolate, 2—8 cm × 2—10 mm, distal cauline smaller, linear, faces bicolor, abaxial gray, silvery sericeous, adaxial green, glabrescent.
Heads
(20—90) in loose, spiciform (leafy-bracteate, interrupted) arrays (4—35 cm, occupying
1
/3—
5
/6 plant heights, simple or branched at bases, primary axes mostly visible).
Involucres
campanulo-turbinate, 5—6.5 mm.
Phyllaries
some or all with conspicuous dark brown spot distal to middle.
Cypselae
cylindric to fusiform, minutely strigose;
pappus
bristles basally connate, falling together.
2
n
= 56.
Flowering Jul—Sep(—Oct). Open woods, boggy woods, rocky slopes, clearings, fields, borders of woods, roadsides, muddy banks, disturbed sites; 10—500 m; St. Pierre and Miquelon; B.C., N.B., Nfld. and Labr. (Nfld.), N.S., Ont., P.E.I., Que.; Maine, Mich., N.H., N.Y., Pa., Vt., Wis.; Europe; Asia (Caucasus, Iran, Siberia).
The circumboreal
Omalotheca sylvatica
may have been introduced from Eurasia (Frére Marie-Victorin 1995).
Omalotheca alpigena
(K. Koch) Holub and
O. caucasica
(Sommier & Levier) S. K. Cherepanov were treated as synonyms of
O. sylvatica
by A. J. C. Grierson (1975); they have been recognized as distinct species in other treatments.
