''Antennaria umbrinella'' 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 names umber pussytoes and brown pussytoes. It is native to southwestern Canada ( Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia) and the western United States as far south as Colorado,

Coconino County Coconino County is a county in the north-central part of the U.S. state of Arizona. Its population was 145,101 at the 2020 census. The county seat is Flagstaff. The county takes its name from ''Cohonino'', a name applied to the Havasupai p ...

in Arizona, and Tulare County in California). It grows in a variety of habitats at a variety of elevations, from lowland sagebrush steppe to subalpine meadows. ''Antennaria umbrinella'' is a perennial herb growing erect stems to a maximum height around 16 centimeters from a woody base with spreading

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. The base is covered in woolly leaves each one to two centimeters long and lance-shaped to spoon-shaped. Each inflorescence holds 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 ...

with fuzzy phyllaries which are whitish to brown in color. The plant 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 males and females producing different flower types in the heads. 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 ...

with a hard body 2 millimeters long and a long pappus of hairs up to 5 millimeters long.Flora of North America Vol. 19, 20 and 21 Page 408 Umber or brown or brown-bracted pussytoes, ''Antennaria umbrinella'' Rydberg
/ref>Rydberg, Per Axel 1897. Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 24(6): 302–303
/ref>

References

External links

Jepson Manual TreatmentUnited States Department of Agriculture Plants ProfileCalphotos Photo gallery, University of CaliforniaTurner Photographics Wildflowers of the Pacific NorthwestDiscover Life
umbrinella Plants described in 1897 Flora of Western Canada Flora of the Northwestern United States Flora of the Southwestern United States Flora without expected TNC conservation status {{Gnaphalieae-stub