California Cudweed :

Ladies’ Tobacco, California Rabbit Tobacco, California Everlasting
Pseudognaphalium californicum
NATIVE

Description (Jepson, PlantID.net)

Eudicotyledon
- Eudicots are a major lineage of flowering plants; see family for general characteristics
Sunflower Family (Asteraceae)
Annual or biennial herb
Leaves
- Mostly narrow, oblong to lance-shaped, with wavy edges
- May attach directly to stem (sessile)
- Sometimes with woolly, glandular (sticky) hairs
- Aromatic
Flowers
- Inflorescence (flower arrangement) of branched, open (loose) sets of flowerheads
- Each disciform head (see Sunflower family) is tightly packed with minute, yellow flowers
  - 100-140 female (pistillate) peripheral flowers with reduced or missing rays
  - 7-12 bisexual central disk flowers
- Flowerheads are surrounded by rows of whitish, paper-like phyllaries (vase-like floral bracts, collectively called the involucre), like the wrapping around a flower bouquet
- Ovary inferior (below the attachment of other flower parts)
Fruit is an achene (a single-seeded, dry fruit that does not split open), more specifically called a cypsela because of the inferior position of the ovary, with a pappus of bristles
Height to 4 ft.

Distribution

Native to California
- Grows in forests, foothill woodlands, and chaparral
- See Calflora for statewide observations of this plant
Outside California, grows from Oregon to Baja California, Mexico
Grows at elevations between 200 and 2,600 ft.

Uses (San Mateo County Parks prohibits removal of any natural material)

Wildlife
- Visited by insects
- Larval food source (host) for the American painted lady (Vanessa virginiensis) butterfly
Native people
- Used an infusion of the plant to treat colds and stomach pain
- Leaves were used as a poultice for burns, bruises, and cuts

Name Derivation

Pseudognaphalium (soo-doe-na-FAY-lee-um) – literally, false Gnaphalium, referring to a superficial resemblance of plants in this genus to those in the genus Gnaphalium
- Gnaphalium, from the Greek gnaphalon, “a lock of wool,” referring to the woolly leaves
Cudweed – commonly used worldwide for a number of plants in the Sunflower family, especially those in the genera Pseudognaphalium and Gnaphalium

Notes

Aromatic leaves deter browsing
- Some people smell maple syrup; others smell cumin: judge for yourself by rubbing the leaves – no need to pick them!
Pappus of bristles helps disperse seeds by catching the wind or onto passing animals
Floral bracts (phyllaries) remain on the plant long after flowering and open outward as they dry and fruit has ripened, appearing like petals; thus, the flowers seem to be “everlasting” (Mitchell 2017)
- Everlasting is another common name for plants in this and related genera, collectively called the Everlasting tribe
What distinguishes the genus Pseudognaphalium from the related genus Gnaphalium (not found in Edgewood)?
Pseudognaphalium species are generally erect plants that grow in dry habitats
Gnaphalium species are low-growing, spreading or prostrate plants that grow in moist, often coastal habitats

ID Tips

May be confused with 4 other species of cudweed at Edgewood; of these, cotton-batting plant (P. stramineum) and weedy-white cudweed (P. luteoalbum) are the most frequently seen

	California Cudweed	Cotton-batting Plant	Weedy-white Cudweed
Height	< 4 ft.	< 2 ft.	< 2 ft.
Woolly Hairs	sometimes	yes, whole plant densely woolly	yes, whole plant somewhat woolly
Glandular (sticky)	yes	no	no
Scented	yes	no	no
Flowerheads	many open (loose) sets	usually a single, dense, terminal (top) cluster	often red-tipped, from many long stems that branch from base

At Edgewood

Found in open and disturbed areas in grasslands, coastal scrub, and chaparral
- See iNaturalist for observations of this plant
Flowers May – August

Specific References

Mitchell, M. 2017. Asteraceae: Sunflower family – Gnaphalieae (cudweed) tribe – 1. Monterey County Wildflowers, Trees, and Ferns – A Photographic Guide.

Prigge, B.A., and A.C. Gibson. 2013. Pseudognaphalium californicum. A Naturalist’s Flora of the Santa Monica Mountains and Simi Hills, California. Web version, hosted at Wildflowers of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. United States Department of Interior, National Park Service.

Vadheim, C. 2016, June 8. Plant of the month (June) : California everlasting – Pseudognaphalium californicum. Mother Nature’s Backyard. Friends of Gardena Willows Wetland Preserve.

General References

Calflora Database. 2014. Berkeley, California.

Calscape. 2018. California Native Plant Society.

Corelli, T. 2004. Flowering Plants of Edgewood Natural Preserve (2nd. ed.). Monocot Press, Half Moon Bay, California.

Elpel, T.J. 2013. Botany in a Day: The Patterns Method of Plant Identification. HOPS Press, Pony, Montana.

Harris, J.G., and M.W. Harris. 2013. Plant Identification Terminology: An Illustrated Glossary. Spring Lake Publishing, Spring Lake, Utah.

Keator, G. 2009. California Plant Families. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, California.

Regents of the University of California. Jepson eFlora. Jepson Herbarium. University of California, Berkeley.