Gnaphalium stramineum Kunth =Gnaphalium chilense var.chilense Asteraceae (Sunflower Family) Native Cotton-Batting Everlasting

                                   March Photo

Plant Characteristics:  Annual or biennial, several-stemmed, 2-6 dm. high, usually quite leafy and with greenish-yellow tomentum; lvs. lanceolate to narrowly spatulate, 2-5 cm. long, gradually reduced upward; heads usually in a single rather close glomerule at end of each stem, sometimes paniculate; invol. 5-6 mm. high, greenish-yellow; phyllaries all obtuse.

Habitat:  Rather moist, often waste places, below 6000 ft.; many Plant Communities; cismontane Calif.; occasional on desert; to B.C., Mont. Tex., most of our ids.  June-Oct.

Name:  See G. bicolor for origin of genus name.  Chilense, indicates that the plant was first found in Chile.  Perhaps this plant was once regarded as identical with a Chilean species which is now under another name.  (John Johnson).  Latin, straminis, straw.  (Jaeger 249).

General:  Occasional in the study area.  Common on the north end of North Star Beach and photographed there along with G. microcephalum. (my comments).      Some species of Gnaphalium are regarded by the Chinese as anti-malarial and are used to drive away moths and other insects.  In France the plants are used in the treatment of bronchitis.  The plants have been used to cure diarrhea.  (Coon 131).  The species name was changed from chilense to stramineum in the Jepson Manual.  (Hickman, Ed. 271).

Text Ref:  Hickman, Ed. 271; Munz, Calif. Flora 1260; Munz, Flora So. Calif. 170; Roberts 11.

Photo Ref:  Feb 83 # 14,16. April 1 84 # 19.

Identity: by R. De Ruff, confirmed by F. Roberts.  

First Found:  February 1983.

Computer Ref:  Plant Data 174.

Have plant specimen.

Last edit 5/8/05.

                                        March Photo                                                                   April Photo