From the inch or two high mat of leaves grow flower stalks topped with a small, tight flower cluster.  Pussytoes female flowers mature and explode in a fluff that disperses the seeds.  Dried male flowers remain on the plants for several months.

   The Antennaria genus is complex and plants are often difficult to identify because Antennaria hybridize and hybrids can produce seeds from unfertilized ovules.  Identification is also complicated because some colonies of plants have only male plants, some only female, and some have both.

    The common name, "Pussytoes", refers to the tightly packed flower head’s resemblance (from the top) to a cat’s paw (from the bottom).

    "Antennaria" refers to antennae-like floral parts.

Foothills, montane, subalpine. Meadows. Spring, summer.
Ryman Creek Trail, May 18, 2006.

This Antennaria is common in montane meadows.  It has oblanceolate leaves, and a dark spot at the base of the phyllaries.  Leaves are quite hairy on both sides.

Aven Nelsen collected the first specimen of this plant in the 1890s.

"Corymbosa" means "many corymbs".  A corymb is a floral arrangement in which individual flowers are attached to the main stem with their own stalk.

Foothills, montane, subalpine. Meadows. Spring, summer.
Ryman Creek Trail, May 18, 2006.

Early spring leaves and a new flower stalk grow quickly above the dry and dying leaves from last year.

Foothills, montane.  Woodlands.  Spring, summer.
Shearer Creek Trail, May 17, 2006.

Antennaria marginata leaves fold inward and the white hairs from the bottom of the leaves thus show as a margin around the nearly smooth light green top of the leaf.  The plant is fairly common in Ponderosa and Pinyon woodlands.

Edward Greene named this species in 1898 from a specimen collected by Augustus Fendler in New Mexico in the mid-1840s.

Foothills, montane.  Woodlands.  Spring, summer.
Shearer Creek Trail, May 17, 2006.

Alpine. Scree, openings. Summer.
Navajo Lake Trail, July 6, 2004.

This miniature is only two inches tall and does not usually grow more than about four inches tall. It has dark phyllaries, as the picture shows.  This is a young cluster of five plants; A. media, as most Antennaria, sends out underground branching roots to spread into large colonies and this colony is just starting.  I photographed this plant above tree-line on the rocky banks of Navajo Lake in the Lizard Head Wilderness.

Edward Greene named this species from a specimen he collected in California in 1901.  "Media" is Latin for "middle".

Foothills, montane.  Meadows, woodlands.  Summer.
Mesa Verde National Park, Prater Ridge Trail, June 3, 2004.

Red Pussytoes is very similar to the far more common white Pussytoes, having a light green, basal mat of leaves and short flower stalks with few leaves.

Foothills, montane.  Meadows, woodlands.  Summer.
Mesa Verde National Park, Prater Ridge Trail, June 3, 2004.

Range map © John Kartesz,
Floristic Synthesis of North America

State Color Key

Species present in state and native
Species present in state and exotic
Species not present in state

County Color Key

Species present and not rare
Species present and rare
Species extirpated (historic)
Species extinct
Species noxious
Species exotic and present
Native species, but adventive in state
Eradicated
Questionable presence

Range map for Antennaria corymbosa

Range map for Antennaria marginata

Range map for Antennaria media

Range map for Antennaria rosea