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Field Pussytoes - Antennaria neglecta
Native Species
Global Rank:
G5
State Rank:
SU
(see State Rank Reason below)
C-value:
4
Agency Status
USFWS:
USFS:
BLM:
External Links
State Rank Reason (see State Rank above)
Antennaria neglecta and Antennaria howellii occur in Montana, but are difficult to separate (Bayer in FNA 2006; Giblin et al. [eds.] 2018). Antennaria neglecta, in the strict sense, is not a hybrid, but is a sexual diploid species (Bayer in FNA 2006; Giblin et al. [eds.] 2018). Antennaria howellii is derived by hybridization of four or more species (A. neglecta, A. plantaginifolia, A. racemosa, A. virginica, and perhaps A. marginata) (Bayer in FNA 2006; Giblin et al. [eds.] 2018). Distinguishing populations of Antennaria neglecta (which have not hybridized) from Antennaria howellii (primarily an apomictic polyploid hybrid) requires scrutinizing a population for the presence and abundance of male plants which is very challenging; therefore, a conservation status rank of SU (unrankable) is assigned in Montana.
General Description
PLANTS: Perennial, herbaceous forbs that produce stolons (creeping stems that grow on the ground’s surface). Plants are 4-25 cm tall. Source: Bayer in FNA 2006.
LEAVES: Basal leaves are 1-nerved, narrowly spatulate to cuneate-oblanceolate in shape, 15-65 mm long, 6-18 mm wide, and tipped with a short, sharp, and slender point (mucronate). Upper side of basal leaves are tomentose while their lower side is gray-pubescent, but become green-glabrescent with age. Cauline leaves are linear, 1.5-25 mm long, and with tips that are flagged (discolored, twisted, and scarious extensions of the leaf tip). Source: Bayer in FNA 2006.
INFLORESCENCE: 4-8(-13) flowers heads are in a corymbiform, spiciform, or racemiform arrangement. Staminate (male) flower heads have involucres of 4-7 mm tall. Pistillate (female) flower heads have involucres of 6-10 mm tall. Involucral bracts (phyllaries) are distally white.
Staminate corollas are 2.7- 5 mm long. Pistillate corollas are 4.5-7.0 mm long. Source: Bayer in FNA 2006.
Antennaria neglecta and Antennaria howellii are combined into an expanded concept using the older name (Antennaria neglecta) in the Manual of Montana Vascular Plants (Lesica et al. 2012).
Phenology
Flowering early to mid-spring (Bayer in FNA 2006).
Diagnostic Characteristics
For identifying Antennaria species, it is important to note (Bayer in FNA 2006):
* the presence or absence of male plants in a population,
* if the population is mat-forming due to the presence of stolons,
* if well-developed stolons root at their tips or not, and
* the presence or absence of ‘flags’ on the tips of mid- and upper-stem leaves. Flags are flat, linear, scarious appendages of the leaf tips. Flags are not to be confused with subulate or blunt leaf tips which are basically green and herbaceous.
Antennaria neglecta is distinguished by lash-like stolons that bear small leaves (except at their ends), flags on the upper cauline leaves, and basal leaves that become green-glabrescent with age (Bayer in FNA 2006).
Observations in Montana Natural Heritage Program Database
Number of Observations: 257
(Click on the following maps and charts to see full sized version)
Map Help and Descriptions
Relative Density
Recency
(Observations spanning multiple months or years are excluded from time charts)
Habitat
Plains, grasslands, pastures, and open woodlands (Bayer in FNA 2006).
Ecology
POLLINATORS The following animal species have been reported as pollinators of this plant species or its genus where their geographic ranges overlap:
Bombus pensylvanicus (Colla and Dumesh 2010).
References
- Literature Cited AboveLegend:
View Online Publication
Colla, S.R. and S. Dumesh. 2010. The bumble bees of southern Ontario: notes on natural history and distribution. Journal of the Entomological Society of Ontario 141:39-68.- Flora of North America Editorial Committee. 2006. Flora of North America North of Mexico. Vol. 19. Magnoliophyta: Asteridae, part 6: Asteraceae, part 1. Oxford Univ. Press, New York. xxiv + 579 pp.
- Hitchcock, C.L. and A. Cronquist. 2018. Flora of the Pacific Northwest: An Illustrated Manual. Second Edition. Giblin, D.E., B.S. Legler, P.F. Zika, and R.G. Olmstead (eds). Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press in Association with Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture. 882 p.
- Lesica, P., M.T. Lavin, and P.F. Stickney. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. Fort Worth, TX: BRIT Press. viii + 771 p.
- Additional ReferencesLegend: View Online Publication
Do you know of a citation we're missing?- Lesica, P., M.T. Lavin, and P.F. Stickney. 2022. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants, Second Edition. Fort Worth, TX: BRIT Press. viii + 779 p.
- Simanonok, M. 2018. Plant-pollinator network assembly after wildfire. Ph.D. Dissertation. Bozeman, MT: Montana State University. 123 p.
- Thompson, W. L. 1993. Ecology of Merriam's Turkeys in relation to burned and logged areas in southeastern Montana. Ph.D. Dissertation. Bozeman, MT: Montana State University. 195 p.
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