Antennaria Gaertn.
Everlasting, Pussy-toes.
Asteraceae (Compositae), daisy family.
Fruct. Sem. Pl. ii. 410. t. 167. 1791.
Vegetative morphology. Plants perennial herbs; 2–15(–20) cm high; with matted tufts of simple, basal leaves from freely branched, creeping and spreading underground stems, and flowering heads of one or several heads. Taproot absent (fibrous roots arising from the underground stem). Caudex present (between basal tufts of leaves and roots). Ground-level or under-ground stems horizontal, or vertical and often branched; rhizomatous, or stoloniferous; elongate, or compact; 0.5–5 mm wide (if applicable). Vegetative, aerial, stem a small transition zone between roots and basal leaves. Leaves in a basal tuft, or basal in a rosette; alternate; simple; marcescent. Petioles absent. Leaf blade bases truncate, or attenuate. Blades 4–25 mm long; 1–4 mm wide. Blades spreading, or divaricate; oblanceolate; flat; appearing single-veined, or with inconspicuous veins. Blades adaxial surface glabrous (rarely), or hairy. Blades adaxial surface hairs pubescent, or woolly; simple, unbranched; sparse, or moderately dense, or dense (if applicable); white and translucent (the hairs), or grey (ashy, the surface colour of the leaf from the dense hair cover). Blades abaxial surface glabrous (rarely), or hairy (usually). Blades abaxial surface hairs moderately dense, or very dense. Blades abaxial surface puberulent, or tomentose, or hairs woolly, or hairs long-silky. Blades abaxial surface hairs white, or translucent hairs; straight, or curved, or wavy; appressed, or spreading. Blade margins entire; glabrous. Leaf apices acuminate, or acute (basal leaves; the upper leaves of the flowering stems are tipped with brown, scale-like, glabrous "flags" 1–2 mm long), or mucronate.
Reproductive morphology. Plants dioecious, or bisexual. Flowering stems present. Flowering stems with leaves; hairy. Flowering stem hairs villous, or woolly, or long-silky; simple and glandular (in A. friesiana); white or translucent (usually), or brown (A. alpina). Inflorescence a solitary head, or of several flowering heads; ovate, or globose or subglobose; (0.7–)1–2 cm long; 10–25(–30) mm wide. Capitula 6.5–14 mm deep. Capitula 6–14 mm wide. Pedicels subtending flowering heads (or not applicable); with non-glandular hairs. Involucral bracts present; number of rows 2–4. Outer involucral bracts blade surface flat; mostly green, or mostly red or purple pigmented, or outermost bracts green, with brown or red edges; innermost bracts almost transparent with red or brown central area; lying adjacent to the flowers; lanceolate; glabrous (entirely or only at the apex), or sparsely hairy, or densely hairy (towards the base); hairs non-glandular; 4.5–7 mm high; 0.5–2 mm wide. Inner involucral bracts apex entire; lanceolate; margins wide, scarious for at least one quarter of the bract; 4.5–8 mm high; 0.5–1.3 mm wide. With only disc florets. Flowers actinomorphic. Calyx modified to a pappus. Calyx accrescent. Pappus with a single row of hairs. Disc floret pappus 4–6 mm long. Petals fused; shorter than the calyx (A. compacta), or longer than the calyx (usually); 5; white, or pink, or purple, or brown; 3.5–4.7 mm long. Corolla tubular; unlobed (fringed), or 5-lobed. Flowers unisexual (usually), or bisexual. Stamens absent, or not functional. Gynoecia inferior. Carpels syncarpous; 2. Styles 1. Stigmas per style 2. Placentation basal. Ovules 1. Fruit sessile. Fruit with calyx persisting; dry; cypselas; indehiscent. Fruit 1–2 mm long; 0.5–1 mm wide; yellowish, or brown. Seeds 1.
Chromosome information. 2n = 42, 60, 63, 70, 100.
Distribution. Uncommon, or rare.
Notes. The common names of this genus are of European origin and refer
("everlasting") to the fact the foliage and dried seedheads persist well into
the winter without appearing to brown or change at all. The name "pussy-toes"
comes from the fact that the flowers and developing seedhead resemble the furry
paws of a small cat (Burt 2000).
Savile (1972) referring to the "furriness"
of Arctic plants stated that it is common in plants that occur at high altitudes
where there is little atmospheric protection from the sun's radiation. He
speculated that most of the arctic plants that are densely pubescent throughout,
such as Antennaria species, have been derived fairly recently and with
little genetic change from alpine regions.
This is a very complex genus
where the species are: (1) sexual with both sexes present in populations, (2)
agamospermic and then usually only with females present in populations, or (3)
sometimes both as, e.g., in A. alpina s. str. and some entities in A.
friesiana s. l. The genus has been split extensively by botantists working
in North America and Greenland. At the time of Hultén (1952) about 200
North American 'species' had been described. Bayer (1984) considered that
Antennaria in North America comprised 25–30 sexual diploid species
and several large polyploid, agamic complexes distributed throughout the
temperate to arctic regions of the northern hemisphere. He suggested that
X = 14 is the base number in Antennaria and recognized three
separate situations within the genus.
1. A diploid group not containing
polyploid apomicts.
2. Diploid species from groups containing apomicts.
3. Polyploid agamospecies and amphimictic species, that are probably of
hybrid origin between two or more diploid members of the genus.
Bayer and
Stebbins (1993) stated that Antennaria is a genus infamous for its
taxonomic complexity as an inspection of the Gray Card index and the Kew Indices
reveled over 350 names had been proposed for North American Antennaria,
the majority by a handful of zealous early twentieth century taxonomists,
particularly E.L. Greene (who named 84 taxa), M.L. Fernald (48 taxa), and A.E.
Porsild (22 taxa). The treatments of these authors often recognized many minor
apomictic variants as distinct taxa. The appendix to the Bayer and Stebbins
(1993) paper, lists an alphabetized index to more than 200 names considered as
synonyms of the taxa they recognized. The splitting has been less extensive in
Asia and Europe where the variation also is much more restricted. There are
probably basal sexual entities (species?) and an upper story of agamospermic
offspring that may have originated directly from the sexuals and/or perhaps as
results of hybridisation between sexuals.
The number of taxa recognized by
Bayer and Stebbins (1993) preparing for the Flora of North America treatment of
the genus was 46, including 35 species and several subspecies within those
species, but they indicated at that time there may still be changes. The
treatment of the genus for Flora North America had not been prepared in May,
2001 (L. Broullet, personal communication).
Bayer, Chmielewski, and
Chinnappa worked extensively on the American taxa during the late 1980's and
1990's (see numerous references cited). Cody (1996) chose to follow the work of
Bayer that follows a tradition from Hultén (1968) and accepts wide
species with with sexual and agamospermic subspecies. This has been
accomplished, more or less, for three of the main aggregates - the A.
rosea, A. friesiana and A. monocephala aggregates, but not for
the large A. alpina aggregate or the north easternorth Americaerican -
Greenlandic group of entities around A. affinis and A. hansii. It
can therefore not be applied consistently yet even if it is a valid and probably
efficient approach. A consistent treatment for the genus in the CAFF area is
therefore not yet possible.
Illustrations. • Plant habit. Plants with flowering heads composed of disc florets only.
Cite this publication as: ‘S.G. Aiken, M.J. Dallwitz, L.L. Consaul, C.L. McJannet, L.J. Gillespie, R.L. Boles, G.W. Argus, J.M. Gillett, P.J. Scott, R. Elven, M.C. LeBlanc, A.K. Brysting and H. Solstad. 1999 onwards. Flora of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago: Descriptions, Illustrations, Identification, and Information Retrieval. Version: 29th April 2003. http://www.mun.ca/biology/delta/arcticf/’. Dallwitz (1980) and Dallwitz, Paine and Zurcher (1993, 1995, 2000) should also be cited (see References).
