Antennaria rosea Greene

• Authority

  Bayer, R. J. 1989. A Taxonomic Revision of the Antennaria Rosea (Asteraceae: Inuleae: Gnaphaliinae) Polyploid Complex. Brittonia. 41 (1): 53-60.

• Family

  Asteraceae

• Scientific Name

  Antennaria rosea Greene

• Description

  
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  Species Description - Mat-forming perennial herbs, odorless, with 3-7 leafy stolons per basal rosette; rosette-leaves spathulate to cuneate, 4-20 (24) in number, 8-40 mm long, 2-10 mm wide, without distinct petioles, glabrescent to canescent, occasionally with purple glandular hairs. Stolons decumbent, (1) 2-7 cm long, with 7-32 leaves, the proximal leaves in the basal rosette 3-14 mm long, 0.5-3 mm wide, the distal rosette leaves 7-38 mm long, 2-10 mm wide. Flowering stem (4) 8-40 cm high; cauline leaves (5) 7-20, linear-oblanceolate, the lower 9-36 mm long, 2-16 mm wide, the upper 6-17 mm long, 1-3 mm wide, only those about the heads sometimes possessing linear-lanceolate, scarious appendages at their tips (flags). Pis- tillate heads 3-16 (20), corymbose, occasionally racemose-corymbose; involucre 4-8 (10) mm high; phyllaries in 2 or 3 series, subulate, scarious, the longest 3.5- 7.5 mm long, 0.7-1.8 mm wide, colors extremely various, white, green, pink, rose, sanguine, stramineous, light brown, deep brown, to blackish-red, colors zoned, with base of a darker shade or different color than the tip. Florets 40-150 per head; corollas 2.5-5 (6) mm long, pappus 3.5-6.5 mm long, achenes 0.7-1.8 mm long, with or without papillae. Staminate plant extremely rare, staminate heads 8, corymbose; involucre 6 mm high; phyllaries 4.5 mm long; 1.5 mm wide, corolla 3.5 mm long; pappus clavate, 3.5 mm long. 2n = 42, 56, or 70.

• Discussion

  Cluster analysis (Bayer, in press) indicated that the A. rosea complex contained several distinct clusters of OTUs. Further inspection of the specimens belonging to those clusters has disclosed that morphological characters exist that can be used to circumscribe these intraspecific groups. Each group is recognized as a subspecies of A. rosea. Additionally, each subspecific taxon morphologically resembles one or two of the sexual progenitor species most closely (Bayer, in press). For example, A. rosea subsp. rosea most closely resembles the sexual species A. corymbosa and A. racemosa, whereas A. rosea subsp. pulvinata is most similar to sexual A. aromatica. Antennaria rosea subsp. confinis is most closely related to A. pulchella and A. umbrinella, but A. rosea subsp. arida is morphologically similar to the sexual species, A. microphylla. A stepwise discriminant analysis (Dixon, 1981) disclosed characters that can be used to reliably separate the subspecific taxa. These characters were subsequently used to produce the following key to the four subspecies of A. rosea.