''Psilocarphus elatior'' is a species of flowering plant in the family

Asteraceae The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae w ...

known by the common names tall woollyheads, meadow woollyheads and tall woolly-marbles. It is native to the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though ...

in western North America from

Vancouver Island Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of British Columbia. The island is in length, in width at its widest point, and in total area, while are o ...

, where it is known from just a few occurrences,''Psilocarphus elatior''.
Garry Oak Ecosystems Recovery Team, British Columbia. to northern

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. It grows in seasonally moist spots such as

meadow A meadow ( ) is an open habitat, or field, vegetated by grasses, herbs, and other non-woody plants. Trees or shrubs may sparsely populate meadows, as long as these areas maintain an open character. Meadows may be naturally occurring or artifi ...

s, spring seeps, and

vernal pool Vernal pools, also called vernal ponds or ephemeral pools, are seasonal pools of water that provide habitat for distinctive plants and animals. They are considered to be a distinctive type of wetland usually devoid of fish, and thus allow the safe ...

s. This is a small erect annual herb growing up to about 15 centimeters tall with a pale silvery or gray-green branching stem coated in woolly or cobwebby fibers. The leaves are linear or lance-shaped and up to about 3.5 centimeters long. They are located along the stem and there are no basal leaves. The

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

is a small, spherical

flower head 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 ...

less than a centimeter wide located at the tip of the stem or in a leaf axils. It is a cluster of several tiny woolly disc flowers surrounded by leaflike

bract In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of ...

s but no

phyllaries In botanical terminology, a phyllary, also known an involucral bract or tegule, is a single bract of the involucre of a composite flower. The involucre is the grouping of bracts together. Phyllaries are reduced leaf-like structures that form one or ...

. Each tiny flower is covered in a scale which is densely woolly with long white fibers, making the developing head appear cottony.

References

External links

Jepson Manual TreatmentUSDA Plants ProfileFlora of North America
Gnaphalieae Flora of the West Coast of the United States Flora of British Columbia Flora of California Flora without expected TNC conservation status {{Gnaphalieae-stub