Antennaria plantaginifolia (known by the common names plantain leaf pussytoes and woman's tobacco)Wildflowers of the United States, Plantain-leaf Pussytoes, Woman's Tobacco - Antennaria plantaginifolia is a perennial forb native to the eastern North America, that produces cream colored composite flowers in spring.
Description Antennaria plantaginifolia is rarely more than tall, consisting of a basal rosette, and an erect stem which bears the inflorescence, a tight flat topped cluster of 4 to 17 fuzzy flower heads composed exclusively of disc flowers, with no ray flowers. The basal leaves are petiolate, oval to roundish, long and wide, with 3 to 7 prominent veins. The under side of the leaves is covered in thick silvery hair. Additional leaves along the stem are lanceolate and smaller. The fruit are cypselae with a pappus of white bristles.
Antennaria plantaginifolia is dioecious, meaning that the male and female flowers are borne on separate plants. It often forms colonies, sometimes consisting entirely of male or female plants. It does so in part through vegetative reproduction. Stolons emerging from the basal rosette take root and develop into new plants.Britton, Nathaniel Lord & Brown, Addison (1913). An Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States, Canada and the British Possessions: From Newfoundland to the Parallel of the Southern Boundary of Virginia, and from the Atlantic Ocean Westward to the 102d Meridian, Volume 3., p. 451. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. © 2005 Connecticut Botanical Society. (http://www.ct-botanical-society.org)
Distribution and habitat Antennaria plantaginifolia is widely distributed in the eastern North America from Quebec and Nova Scotia west to Minnesota and south to Mississippi, Arkansas, and Florida, with isolated populations in eastern Texas and Saskatchewan. In Virginia, it grows in habitats including dry forests, barrens, and meadows. Virginia Botanical Associates. (2014). Digital Atlas of the Virginia Flora (http://www.vaplantatlas.org). c/o Virginia Botanical Associates, Blacksburg. The presence of this species is dependent on appropriate habitat, and it may be eliminated from an area by development, changes in land use, or competition with invasive species.
In North America, the plant was nominally called "Indian tobacco", as it was often chewed by children in place of real tobacco.
Galls This species is host to the following insect induced gall: Asynapta antennariae Wheeler, 1889 (see image)
external link to gallformers
References
External links Missouri Botanical Garden plant finder, gardening help, Antennaria plantaginifolia Connecticut Wildflowers, Plantain-leaved Pussytoes (Woman's Tobacco), Antennaria plantaginifolia Missouri Plants