From the inch or two high mat grow flower stalks topped with a small, tight flower cluster.  Dried 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.  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 (see below), having a light green, basal mat of leaves and short flower stalks with few leaves.

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, subalpine. Meadows, woodlands, rocks. Spring, summer.
Prairie Dog Knoll Trail, Abajo Mountains, June 25, 2004.

Pussytoes female flowers mature and explode in a fluff that disperses the seeds.

Foothills, montane. Meadows, openings, woodlands. Spring, summer.
Prater Ridge Trail, May 2, 2006.

Antennaria dimorpha produces distinctive silver-green patches of tiny, light green leaves surmounted (barely) by numerous flowers, each on its own stem.  It is found in dry, open rimrock areas, primarily in the foothills and mesas.  William Weber indicates that A. dimorpha is "very unlike any other species [of Antennaria] and possibly deserv[es] generic rank".  The plant is only an inch or two tall.

Thomas Nuttall collected the first specimen of this plant for science near the Platte River in the mid-1830s and he named it Gnaphalium dimorphum in 1841.  Torrey and Gray renamed it Antennaria dimorpha in 1843.  "Dimorpha" is Greek for "two" or "separate",  "parts" or "forms" --  of undetermined reference. 

Foothills, montane. Meadows, openings, woodlands. Spring, summer.
Dolores River Overlook Trail, April 28, 2008.

Foothills, montane. Meadows, openings, woodlands. Spring, summer.
Prater Ridge Trail, Mesa Verde National Park, May 16, 2006.

The photograph at left shows that in just two weeks, the flowers in the photograph above have matured, turned rusty brown, and exploded in a fluff of white seeds.

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.  Because it usually does not send out underground branching roots, it tends not to grow in the large, matted colonies common to most other Antennaria.  I photographed this plant above tree-line on the rocky banks of Navajo Lake.

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