Woolly Cottonflower

Plants 1-7 dm diam. Stems prostrate to decumbent, 0.4-1 mm diam., sparsely pilose to strongly woolly-villous with whitish, straight to wavy-crinkled hairs. Leaves basal and cauline; basal leaves with petiole 0.5-2 cm, blade linear or linear-oblanceolate to spatulate, 1.6 -9.7 × 0.2-1(-1.7) cm; cauline leaves with winged petiole 1-5 mm, blade ovate, elliptic-ovate elliptic, oblong-elliptic, oblong, or oblong-ovate, (0.1-)0.5-1.8(-3.3) × (0.1-)0.2-0.7 (-1.3) cm, glabrous or sparsely to densely pilose to strigose. Glomerules white, globose to cylindric, 1-10 × 5-8 mm. Flowers sessile; tepals green, oblong-lanceolate, outer tepals 2.5-4 mm, inner tepals 2.5-3.6 mm, chartaceous, apex acuminate, woolly-villous on exposed surfaces. Utricles included within tepals, 1.4-2 mm. Seeds 0.8-1.2 × 0.6-0.9 mm.

Paronychia lanuginosa Poiret in J. Lamarck et al., Encycl., suppl. 4: 303. 1816; Guilleminea lanuginosa (Poiret) Moquin-Tandon ex Bentham & Hooker f.

Gossypianthus lanuginosus (Poir.) Moq. in DC. Prodr. 13 2 : 337
1849.
Paronychia lanuginosa Poir. in Lam. Encyc. Suppl. 4: 303. 1816. 'Gossypianthus rigidifiorus Hook. Ic. pi. 251. 1840.
Celosia pjloselloides Poit.; Moq. in DC. Prodr. 13 2 : 337, as synonym. 1849. Achyranthes piloselloides Poit.; Moq. in DC. Prodr. 13 2 : 337, as synonym. 1849. Illecebrum lanuginosum Poir.; Moq. in DC. Prodr. 13 2 : 337, as synonym. 1849. Guilleminea lanuginosa Benth. & Hook. Gen. PL 3: 37. 1880.
Caudex simple, lanate; stems numerous, ascending or prostrate, 1-2 dm. long, stout or
slender, much branched, lanate, sometimes glabrate in age; basal leaves petiolate, the blades
oblong-oblanceolate to obovate-spatulate, 1.5-6.5 cm. long, 3-10 mm, wide, obtuse or rounded
at the apex, long-attenuate at the base, sparsely appressed-pilose or glabrate on the upper surface, pilose-sericeous beneath or glabrate; cauline leaves on very short, broad petioles, the blades oval, orbicular-oval, or rounded-obovate, 5-10 mm. long, 3-8 mm. wide, obtuse or acutish, pilose-strigose above, densely pilose-sericeous beneath; flowers glomerate or capitate, the inflorescence equaling or shorter than the subtending leaves * bracts ovate, acute or acuminate, shorter than the flowers; calyx 2.5-3 mm. long, densely lanate, the sepals lanceolate to lance-linear, acuminate, 3-nerved, green along the nerves, elsewhere white and scarious; filaments linear, or dilated at the base; seed 1 mm. long, brown, shining.
Type locality: Santo Domingo.
Distribution: In dry soil, southern and western Texas to Chihuahua and Tamaulipas; Hispaniola.