California cottonrose, fluffweed

Gnaphalium filaginoides Hooker & Arnott, Bot. Beechey Voy., 359. 1839; Filago californica Nuttall; Logfia californica (Nuttall) Holub; Oglifa californica (Nuttall) Rydberg

Plants 1–30(–55) cm. Stems 1(–7), typically ± erect; branches leafy between proximal forks, remaining grayish to greenish, arachnoid-sericeous. Leaves mostly oblanceolate, largest 10–15(–20) × 2–3(–4) mm, pliant; longest capitular leaves 1–2(–3) times head heights, mostly acute. Heads mostly in glomerules of 2–4 in racemiform, paniculiform, or distally dichasiiform arrays, ± pyriform, largest 3.5–4.5 × 2.5–3 mm. Phyllaries 0, vestigial, or 1–4, unequal, ± like paleae. Receptacles ± fungiform, mostly 0.6–0.7 mm, heights 0.7–0.9 times diams. Pistillate paleae (except innermost) 7–13 in 2(–3) series, spirally ranked, loosely saccate, incurved 20–60°, somewhat gibbous, not galeate, longest 2.7–3.3 mm, distal 15–30% of lengths glabrous abaxially; bodies ± cartilaginous, ± terete; wings prominent. Innermost paleae ± 5, spreading in 1 series, pistillate. Pistillate florets: outer 7–13 epappose, inner 14–35 pappose. Bisexual florets 4–7; corollas 1.9–2.8 mm, lobes mostly 4, bright reddish to purplish. Cypselae: outer nearly straight, ± erect, compressed, mostly 0.9–1 mm; inner mostly papillate; pappi of 17–23+ bristles falling in complete or partial rings, 1.9–3 mm. 2n = 28.

Flowering and fruiting mid Feb–early Jul. Mediterranean climates: open slopes, flats, diverse substrates (including serpentine), old disturbances (chaparral burns) or seasonally moist sites, or warm deserts: protected slopes or higher elevations, among rocks, boulders (often granitic), less disturbed; 0–1800(–2000) m; Ariz., Calif., Nev., N.Mex., Tex., Utah; Mexico (Baja California, Baja California Sur, Sonora).

Long known as Filago californica, Logfia filaginoides is relatively common in the Californian Floristic Province south of Humboldt County, California, to northern Baja California Sur (including Channel Islands, and Angel de la Guarda, Cedros, and Guadalupe islands in Mexico). Eastward, it is scattered to southwestern Utah and western Texas. An 1893 gathering labeled "Blue Lakes, Snake Plains" is of uncertain origin.