Antennaria neglecta Greene

Field Pussytoes

© SRTurner

Family - Asteraceae/Gnaphalieae

Habit - Perennial, dioecious forb, with rhizomes and stolons, often colonial.

Stems - Stolons frequently relatively long, slender, densely woolly, leafy. Flowering stems 3-20 cm long, densely woolly, sometimes becoming glabrous in patches with age.

	Stem and leaves.
© SRTurner

Leaves - Basal leaves 1.5-5.0 cm long, 4-15 mm wide, narrowly oblanceolate to narrowly obovate or narrowly spatulate, rounded to broadly and abruptly pointed at the tip, tapered at the base, the upper surface moderately to densely woolly, often becoming glabrous or nearly so with age, the undersurface densely woolly, with 1 main vein, occasionally with an additional faint pair of main veins. Stem leaves 0.8-2.5 cm long, linear to narrowly oblong-lanceolate, the lowermost often narrowly oblanceolate, mostly sharply pointed at the tip, the median and upper leaves with a short, hairlike extension of the midvein, truncate or slightly tapered at the base, the blade tissue sometimes extending along the stem as 2 narrow wings below the main attachment point, densely woolly on both surfaces.

	Basal leaves.
© SRTurner

	Basal leaves, abaxial and adaxial surfaces. Note the single midvein.
© SRTurner

Inflorescences - Terminal, dense clusters, the individual heads mostly short-stalked. Heads with all staminate or all pistillate florets. Involucres 5-10 mm long, the staminate ones usually slightly shorter than the pistillate ones, narrowly ovoid to narrowly bell-shaped at flowering, the bracts in 5-8 overlapping series, appressed when young. Receptacle flat or convex, naked.

	Inflorescence. These are pistillate heads.
© SRTurner

Flowers - Corollas 2.5-6.5 mm long.

Fruits - Achenes 1.0-1.5 mm long, narrowly elliptic-obovoid, not or only slightly flattened, the surface appearing pebbled or roughened with minute papillae, brown to olive brown.

Flowering - April - June.

Habitat - Bottomland and upland prairies, upland forest openings, pastures, lawns, cemeteries, railroads, and roadsides.

Origin - Native to the U.S.

Lookalikes - Antennaria parlinii.

Other info. - This species of pussytoes closely resembles the more common A. parlinii. However, A. neglecta is generally a little smaller, and the basal leaves have only a single midvein. It occurs in Missouri across much of the state, though it is uncommon or absent in much of the Ozark and Ozark Border regions. Beyond Missouri its range extends across most of the north-central and northeastern portions of the continental U.S., and also continues into Canada.

Photographs taken at Twenty-Five Mile Prairie, Polk County, MO, 4-2-2022 (SRTurner).