#antennaria

What's poppin' in late February: Part 4 of ~7

Erythronium umbilicatum - Trout Lily Antennaria plantaginifolia/parlinii - Pussytoes, Woman's Tobacco

Which species? I don't know, as both are plausible here and they're nearly identical. Leaning towards Parlin's bc of the look of those basal leaves, but some sources say they're one species anyway, so I'm close enough.

And once you get to looking at the ground, closely, to see all the lovely little flowers there, you also notice the things that are going to be lovely little flowers. The last photo is the basal leaves of Rattlesnake Hawkweed - Hieracium venosum. It'll bloom later.

Two Pussy toe species one is common, one really should be listed as uncommon or rare in almost every county. 

Antennaria plantaginifolia

Antennaria solitaria

I’ve actually never seen the second( solitary flowering pussy toes) species in person until very recently, it’s extremely uncommon and doesn’t reduce competition to the extremes that neglected and plantain leaf pussy toes do with allelopathic exudence. I’ve been taken to places where friends have said they have been reported often to have them be plantain leaf growing in alkaline soils. 

Instead it is a very site specific species having to rely on full sun exposure and the shallowness of the substrate, 1-2 inches of organic over sand stone or granite, to gain an advantage, known to be found in acidic/ericaceous cliff break communities and sandstone barrens where it proliferates. 

I feel like range maps do no justice when a genera is never reported in high enough numbers. 

Plantain

^ for example and for some reason MI, OH, and LA are not reported as entirely green , Indiana has low reports too, Illinois and MO seem to be the most accurate. This species is very common and it blows my mind that Ohio and MI don’t have them reported knowing damn well that I have seen them in Caldwell, Richardson, and all over Adams and Scioto.

^ solitary

It’s funny, the other two species i’ve wanted to see in my region is one super rare MI serpentine native subspecies known from one spot in MI and that’s it, comparative to the western subspecies this little spot is extremely disjunct,

 and one species that does occur in Ohio but is more associated with the Dolly Sods and the Northern Piedmont brim regions also known as Virginia pussy toes

Antennaria

Euphorbia Cyparrisias (Cypress Spurge)

Vinca Minora (Perwinkle, Myrtle)

Thalictrum Thalictroide (Rue Anemone)

Erythronium Americanum (Yellow Trout Lily)

Antennaria (Pussytoes)