Littleleaf Silverback

Stems spreading or erect. Leaves sessile; blades ovate to lanceolate, 18–65 × 7–40 mm, abaxially lanate, adaxially usually glabrous and shiny, rarely sparsely tomentulose, then usually glabrescent. Peduncles 10–50 mm. Phyllaries 6–14, ovate to lanceolate, 5–9 mm. Florets 11–23; corollas pale yellow, 8–11 mm. Cypselae 3–4 mm, 9-nerved, glabrous or strigose; pappi of 80–120 bristles 8–10 mm. 2n = 60.

Luina hypoleuca Benth. in Hook. Ie. PI. 12; 36. 1873
A perennial, with a rootstock covered with fuscous scales; stem 2-5 dm. high, whitetomentose; leaves alternate, sessile, ovate or oval, entire, acute, 2-6 cm. long, 3-7-ribbed, reticulate, loosely floccose, at last glabrate and shining above, white-tomentose beneath; heads corymbose; individual peduncles 1-2 cm. long; involucre oblong-campanulate, about 7 mm. high, 8-10 mm. broad; bracts about 12, keeled, lanceolate, acuminate, at first floccosetomentose, in age glabrate; corolla nearly 1 cm. long; tube slender, nearly equaling the cylindro-funnelform throat; lobes lanceolate, 1 mm. long; anthers 4 mm. long; style-branches 2 mm. long; achenes brown, 3 mm. long; pappus-bristles about 8 mm. long.
Type locality: Lake Chilukweynk, Cascade Mountains.
Distribution: Cascade Mountains from Oregon to British Columbia, and on Vancouver Island.

Luina californica (A. Gray) Rydberg, sp. nov
Luina hypoleuca californica A. Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. 9: 206. 1874.
A perennial, similar to the preceding, with a short branched woody rootstock, covered with dark-brown scales; stem white-tomentose, 2-3 dm. high; leaves broadly oval or the lower obovate, acute, entire, 1-3 cm. long, 5-7-ribbed and reticulate, rather permanently floccose above, densely white-tomentose beneath heads corymbose; individual peduncles about 1 cm. long; involucre about S mm. high and broad; bracts linear, acuminate, carinate, densely white-tomentose; corolla as in the preceding, but the lobes ovate, less than 1 mm. long.
Type locality: Behind Santa Cruz. California.
Distribution: Coast Range of California, from Santa Cruz northward.

Luina hypoleuca, the littleleaf silverback, is a species of the genus Luina and the family Asteraceae. It grows to 40 centimetres (16 inches) in height, its leaves 2.5–6.5 cm (1–2+1⁄2 in) long and white on the underside (hence the specific epithet, meaning 'bottom white'). It flowers between June and October, with yellowish rayless flower heads about 9 millimetres (3⁄8 in) long. It is found in North America on open and usually rocky places between elevations of 70–2,100 metres (230–6,890 feet) in British Columbia, California, Oregon, and Washington.

Top view

Leaf bottom