COMPOSITE FAMILY COMPOSITAE 
PLANTAIN-LEAVED EVERLASTING 
Antennaria plantaginifolia (L.) Richards. 
Several species of Everlasting occur in Illinois and some of 
them are quite difficult to distinguish. This is probably the com- 
monest and gets its name from the fact that the basal leaves re- 
semble those of Plantain. It is also called 
&" thems, Ladies’ Tobacco, White Plantain, Pussytoes, 
and it often grows in patches which com- 
pletely cover the ground. Size, leaf form and 
ra NY sy, and sometimes Dogtoes. 
, Save Hy, 2g . - v ’ 
Pee ZZ It grows in dry soil, especially in open 
a 2 ey woods, from Quebec to Minnesota and south 
“, “ Bay ject ® e . 
ve hy. to Florida and Texas, blooming from April 
RS to June. The whole plant is densely woolly 
N 
individual plants. The flowering stems of 
fertile plants are 4-20 inches high and may be 
slender or stout. The basal leaves vary 
greatly in size and shape but are usually 
distinctly 3-ribbed, petioled, dull dark green 
above and silvery beneath. Stem leaves are 
sessile, oblong to lanceolate, and the upper 
are small and widely separated. 
The heads are one-quarter of an 
inch high and in convex racemose 
clusters. The involucre is composed 
of narrow greenish white bracts, 
acute or acutish. The corollas are 
tubular and distinctly 5-toothed. 
The white bristle pappus is abun- 
dant and the akenes are minutely 
glandular. 
The sterile or staminate plants 
seem to be less common than the pistillate. They are smaller, 
3-8 inches high, and have somewhat smaller basal leaves. The 
stem leaves are mostly linear and the bracts of the involucre are 
oblong and blunt. Heads are smaller, corollas scarcely toothed 
and the white bristle pappus scanty. 
356 
other characteristics vary greatly among — 
