''Antennaria media'' is a

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

n species of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae known by the common name Rocky Mountain pussytoes. It is native to western Canada and the Western United States from Alaska and Yukon Territory to California to New Mexico. It grows in cold Arctic and

alpine Alpine may refer to any mountainous region. It may also refer to: Places Europe * Alps, a European mountain range ** Alpine states, which overlap with the European range Australia * Alpine, New South Wales, a Northern Village * Alpine National Pa ...

regions, either at high latitudes in the Arctic or at high elevations in the mountains ( Rocky Mountains, Cascades,

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada () is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily ...

). ''Antennaria media'' is a perennial herb forming a matted patch of

stolon In biology, stolons (from Latin '' stolō'', genitive ''stolōnis'' – "branch"), also known as runners, are horizontal connections between organisms. They may be part of the organism, or of its skeleton; typically, animal stolons are external s ...

s and woolly basal leaves with inflorescences no more than about 13 centimeters tall. The inflorescences contain several

flower heads A pseudanthium (Greek for "false flower"; ) is an inflorescence that resembles a flower. The word is sometimes used for other structures that are neither a true flower nor a true inflorescence. Examples of pseudanthia include flower heads, compos ...

. The species is

dioecious Dioecy (; ; adj. dioecious , ) is a characteristic of a species, meaning that it has distinct individual organisms (unisexual) that produce male or female gametes, either directly (in animals) or indirectly (in seed plants). Dioecious reproductio ...

, with male and female flowers on different plants. The fruit is an

achene An achene (; ), also sometimes called akene and occasionally achenium or achenocarp, is a type of simple dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. Achenes are monocarpellate (formed from one carpel) and indehiscent (they do not ope ...

up to about 6 millimeters long, most of which is the long, soft pappus.Flora of North America Vol. 19, 20 and 21 Page 411 Rocky Mountain pussytoes, ''Antennaria media'' Greene
/ref>

Subspecies

There are several subspecies; one subspecies is

diploid Ploidy () is the number of complete sets of chromosomes in a cell, and hence the number of possible alleles for autosomal and pseudoautosomal genes. Sets of chromosomes refer to the number of maternal and paternal chromosome copies, respectively ...

and reproduces sexually and the others are polyploid and display

apomixis In botany, apomixis is asexual reproduction without fertilization. Its etymology is Greek for "away from" + "mixing". This definition notably does not mention meiosis. Thus "normal asexual reproduction" of plants, such as propagation from cuttin ...

.Chmielewski, J. G. (1997). A taxonomic revision of the ''Antennaria media'' (Asteraceae: Inuleae) polyploid species complex in western North America. ''Brittonia'' 49:3 309-27.

References

External links

Jepson Manual TreatmentUnited States Department of Agriculture Plants ProfileCalphotos Photo gallery, University of California
media Alpine flora Plants described in 1898 Flora of Subarctic America Flora of Western Canada Flora of the Northwestern United States Flora of the Southwestern United States Flora of the South-Central United States Flora without expected TNC conservation status {{Gnaphalieae-stub