field pussytoes, Antennaria neglecta
OK, I confess. This one is contrived. One was picked and held next to the other. Couldn't resist the chance for this illustration.
Each pussytoes plant forms a large unisexual patch. You could spend a lifetime and never find both pistillate (left) and staminate(right) flower heads next to each other. In this case they were about fifty feet apart. At least they were there. Yesterday's Canadian pussytoes rarely shows us any of those fascinatingly different male blooms. The fuzz on the left is fastened to the ovaries, ultimately becoming transportation for the windblown seeds. The male plant has no ovaries, hence no fuzz. Field pussytoes grows in poor soil, often sand, in mostly open areas in AR, CO, CT, DE, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, MT, NC, ND, ME, NH, NJ, NY, OH, OK, PA, RI, SD, TN, VA, VT, WI, WV, WY, AB, BC, MB, NS, NT, ON, QC, SK, and on SPM. Lenawee Co MI, 5/8/20. Aster family, Asteraceae.
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Hi Denise
Just thinking it's almost time to come look for Platanthera flava. Bob
Hi Bob:
I found it on Eber Rd, about 1.5 mi S. of Kitty Todd Preserve 1/4 mi from Metroparks land. I’m guessing it came in on the RR. (NwOhio)
Apparently so, but not on all plants. The brown only shows a little in this image.
Regarding umber pussytoes, one reference calls it brown-brackted pussytoes. Are it's bracts browner than other pussytoes?