western marsh cudweed
Family
AsteraceaeScientific Name
Gnaphalium palustreOther Common Names:
lowland cudweed
Synonyms (former Scientific Names):
Filaginella palustris
Habit
Preferring moist soils the marsh cudweed is usually 5 to 20 cm tall with erect leafy stems branched at the base. The entire plant is covered with tufts of white woolly hairs.
Leaves
Leaves covered with loose felt like hairs are 1 to 3 cm long and have a single vein. They are oblong to lance shaped and the margins are smooth to slightly wavy.
Identifying Characteristics
Generally less than 20 cm tall covered with dense wooly hairs, with whitish to brownish green flowers.
Flower Seed Head
Small clusters of 3 to 10 whitish to brownish green or straw colored flower heads can be found in terminal or axillary positions. Floral bracts are scale like and pale brown with white tips. This species has no ray florets only yellowish white disk florets.
Seed Fruit
The fruit is an achene bearing a single 1 mm long brown ovate seed the pappus consists of deciduous white hairs. A single marsh cudweed is capable of producing over 500 seeds.
Where Found
Throughout Canada and the western United States. This weed is a serious pest in low-lying cultivated cropland, roadside ditches, and on irrigation ditch banks.
Life Cycle
winter annual
Plant Type
Herb