Macoun’s rabbit-tobacco, gnaphale de Macoun

Gnaphalium macounii Greene, Ottawa Naturalist 15: 278. 1902; G. decurrens Ives 1819, not Linnaeus 1759

Annuals or biennials (often sweetly fragrant), 40–90 cm; taprooted. Stems stipitate-glandular throughout (usually persistently lightly white-tomentose distally). Leaf blades (not crowded, internodes mostly 5+ mm) lanceolate to oblanceolate, 3–10 cm × 3–13 mm (distal linear), bases not clasping, decurrent 5–10 mm, margins flat to slightly revolute, faces weakly bicolor, abaxial tomentose, adaxial stipitate-glandular, otherwise glabrescent or glabrous. Heads in corymbiform arrays. Involucres campanulo-subglobose, 4.5–5.5 mm. Phyllaries in 4–5 series, stramineous to creamy (hyaline, shiny), ovate to ovate-oblong, glabrous. Pistillate florets 47–101(–156). Bisexual florets 5–12[–21]. Cypselae not ridged, ± papillate-roughened.

Flowering July–Oct. Dry, open habitats, pastures, open woods or edges, roadsides; 50–2600(–3000) m; Alta., B.C., Man., N.B., N.S., Ont., P.E.I., Que., Sask.; Ariz., Calif., Colo., Conn., Idaho, Ill., Ind., Maine, Mass., Mich., Minn., Mont., N.H., N.Mex., N.Y., Ohio, Oreg., Pa., S.Dak., Tenn., Utah, Vt., Va., Wash., W.Va., Wis., Wyo.; Mexico.

Pseudognaphalium macounii is recognized by its stipitate-glandular, proximally glabrescent stems, bicolor and decurrent leaves, relatively large and many-flowered heads, and hyaline, shiny phyllaries. Reports of P. macounii from Texas are based on specimens of P. viscosum.