Wright’s rabbit-tobacco

Gnaphalium canescens de Candolle in A. P. de Candolle and A. L. P. P. de Candolle, Prodr. 6: 228. 1838; G. sonorae I. M. Johnston; G. texanum I. M Johnston; G. viridulum I. M. Johnston; G. wrightii A. Gray

Annuals or perennials, 20–70(–100+) cm; taprooted. Stems persistently tomentose, not glandular (2–3 mm diam. near bases). Leaf blades narrowly to broadly oblanceolate, mostly 2–4(–5) cm × 2–8(–15) mm, bases not clasping, not decurrent, margins flat, faces weakly bicolor, tomentose (adaxial less densely tomentose, sometimes sessile-glandular beneath tomentum). Heads usually in loose, corymbiform arrays. Involucres turbinate-campanulate, 4–5 mm. Phyllaries in 3–4 series, white (opaque to hyaline, dull to shiny), narrowly ovate-lanceolate, glabrous. Pistillate florets (16–)24–44. Bisexual florets (1–)2–5(–6), 5–6 more common in northern part of range. Cypselae ridged, weakly papillate-roughened. 2n = 28.

Flowering Aug–Nov(–Jan). Lava beds, rocky sites, grasslands, oak, pine-oak, and pine woodlands; 1100–2500(–2700) m; Ariz., Calif., Colo., N.Mex., Okla., Tex., Utah; Mexico.

Most plants of Pseudognaphalium canescens produce white, opaque, keeled, apiculate phyllaries; in the southern portion of its range (Jalisco southeastward) and scattered localities elsewhere, the phyllaries may be more hyaline and lack a pronounced keel and apiculum.