Antennaria aprica
 
Low Everlasting

Plants in Ground

Oro Lake Regional Park
09-June-2006

A. aprica is easily confused with A. microphylla.  Therefore, I have included specimens from both species in some of the pictures.  Flora of North America lists A. aprica as a synonym for A. parvifolia.  I have retained the specific epithet aprica because that is what is used in Budd's Flora and Flora of Alberta.  Unfortunately, some floras (including both Budd's Flora and Flora of Alberta) have used parvifolia as the specific epithet for A. microphyllaA. microphylla is related to A. rosea, but is not closely related to A. aprica.  For further discussion, see the entries in Flora of North America.

bullet

Aprica: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora and Flora of Alberta leading to this species. 
bullet

stolons leafy; NOT [stolons often leafless, with a terminal rosette]

bullet

leaves usually small, ovate, spatulate; NOT [leaves mostly linear-lanceolate]

bullet

leaves generally narrower; NOT [leaves generally about 1 cm wide]

bullet

leaves usually green and glabrous above; NOT [leaves usually greyish and tomentose above and below]

bullet

plants with greatly reduced stem leaves; NOT [plants with well-developed stem leaves]

bullet

basal leaves in well-developed appressed rosettes; NOT [basal leaves, if present, upright around the stem]

bullet

rosette leaves to 25 mm long; NOT [rosette leaves to 50 mm long]

bullet

rosette leaves usually less than 10 mm wide; NOT [rosette leaves 20 mm wide]

bullet

lower leaves usually broader; NOT [lower leaves narrowly oblanceolate]

bullet

rosette leaves densely pubescent on both sides; NOT [rosette leaves glabrous to subglabrous above; densely pubescent below]

bullet

stem leaves 5-7; NOT [ stem leaves 8-12]

bullet

heads in corymbs, often congested; NOT [heads in loose racemes]

bullet

heads on short peduncles or subsessile; NOT [heads on long, slender peduncles]

bullet

involucre 8-13 mm high; NOT [involucre 4-7 mm high]

bullet

involucral bracts green or whitish at the base; NOT [involucral bracts with a large dark spot at the base]

bullet

bracts woolly at base; NOT [bracts glabrous or nearly so]

bullet

bracts with white or cream tips; NOT [bracts with  greenish, light brown, dark brown, or black tips], NOT [bracts with pink tips]  (Flora of Alberta)

bullet

terminal part of involucral bracts whitish or light pink when young; NOT [terminal part of involucral bracts roseate to deep pink, even at maturity] (Budd's Flora)

 

bullet

Antennaria: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora and Flora of Alberta leading to this genus.  
bullet

juice watery; NOT milky

bullet

plants perennial with fibrous roots, lacking a taproot; NOT [plants perennial with taproot, or low spreading annuals]

bullet

plants often stoloniferous; NOT [plants rhizomatous but lacking stolons]

bullet

low plants; NOT [tall plants]

bullet

plants more or less white-woolly

bullet

leaves mostly basal, with stem leaves reduced; NOT [stem leafy]

bullet

basal leaves generally forming a persistent tuft or rosette, stem seldom very leafy; NOT [basal leaves soon deciduous, not markedly larger than the numerous well-developed cauline leaves]

bullet

basal leaves, if any, NOT cordate or sagittate

bullet

bracts of involucre dry, parchmenty or membranous; NOT [green]

bullet

involucral bracts mostly with dry, scarious, thin, white to yellowish or brownish tips]; NOT [involucral bracts not markedly scarious at the tip]

bullet

receptacle naked; NOT [receptacle densely bristly]

bullet

flower heads with all florets tubular

bullet

flowers NOT perfect

bullet

heads strictly dioecious; NOT [some or all pistillate heads with a few central staminate flowers]

bullet

stamens united to form a tube around the pistil

bullet

pappus of capillary bristles, sometimes plumose; NOT [pappus of scales, or of awns, or a crown, or none]