Gnaphalium purpureum auct. non L.: Hsu, Lu, Yang & Huang, Wild Herb. Pl. Taiwan 67. 1987.
Annual herbs. Stems erect, simple or more often branching from base, 10-50 cm tall, grayish tomentose. Basal leaves withering at anthesis; cauline leaves remote, scarcely diminishing in size upward, sessile, oblanceolate to spatulate, 2.5-8×0.4-1.8 cm; apex rounded to obtuse, margins entire or slightly wavy, upper surface loosely cobwebby, greenish, lower surface gray-green, woolly. Heads numerous in axillary clusters, forming more or less interrupted leafy (leaves 1.5-5.5 cm long) spicate panicles, lower branches usually stalked. Heads 3×1-1.5 mm when dry, densely woolly to 2/3 from base. Outer involucral bracts ovate-lanceolate or lanceolate, ca. 2-2.5 mm long, apex long acute; inner ones linear-oblong, ca. 3 mm long, rounded to short acute. Outer florets ca. 100, corolla ca. 2.25 mm long; central florets 2 or 3, corolla ca. 2.25 mm long. Achenes brown, elliptic, 0.5 mm long, minutely glandular. Pappus white, ca. 2.3 mm long, connate at base into a ring.
TAIPEI: Nankang, Peng 12631; Tanshui, Peng 12673. TAOYUAN: Shalun, Peng 7709. HSINCHU: Hsinchuangtzu, Peng 6374; Lienhuassu, Peng 11520. MIAOLI: Huoyenshan, Lin 1001. TAICHUNG: Chingshui, Peng 4487. NANTOU: Chingching Farm, Peng 6314; Meifeng, Peng 9066. CHIAYI: Tienyunshan, Peng 8860. PINGTUNG: Chachayalaishan, Liao 226. TAITUNG: Lanyu Is., Peng 10654; Taiyuanhsiaku, Chen 435. HUALIEN: Taroko Natl. Park, Panero 6483.
Native throughout the warmer parts of the Americas, widely adventive elsewhere. Taiwan, waste fields and roadsides, seaside to 1,700 m, common.
