Page authors: Don Knoke, David Giblin
Psilocarphus oregonus
Oregon woollyheads
Specimens
Photos

Distribution: Occurring east of the Cascades crest in Washington; Washington to California, east to Idaho and Nevada.

Habitat: Dried beds of vernal pools, and seasonally wet rocky slopes.

Flowers: May-July

Origin: Native

Growth Duration: Annual

Conservation Status: Not of concern

Pollination: Bees, flies, beetles, wasps

Description:
General:

Slender annual, the much-branched stem up to 15 cm. long, becoming prostrate, often matted; herbage closely silvery-woolly.

Leaves:

Leaves opposite, entire, linear or linear-lanceolate, 6-20 mm. long and 1-3 mm. wide, usually surpassing the heads.

Flowers:

Heads discoid, spheroid, terminal, but subtended by a pair of branches and leaves; involucre none; receptacle sub-globose, covered with scales; outer flowers pistillate, numerous, the short, narrow, tubular corolla loosely enclosed by a saccate, woolly bract (scale), which bears an appendage below the summit; central flowers few, staminate; pappus none.

Fruits:

Achene 0.6-1.2 mm. long, swollen, smooth.

Accepted Name:
Psilocarphus oregonus Nutt.
Publication: Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc., n. s. 7: 341. 1840.

Synonyms & Misapplications:
(none provided)
Additional Resources:

PNW Herbaria: Specimen records of Psilocarphus oregonus in the Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria database.

WA Flora Checklist: Psilocarphus oregonus checklist entry.

OregonFlora: Psilocarphus oregonus information.

E-Flora BC: Psilocarphus oregonus atlas page.

CalPhotos: Psilocarphus oregonus photos.

USDA Plants: Psilocarphus oregonus information.

17 photographs:
Group by