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Heath Cudweed

Heath Cudweed

Omalotheca sylvatica

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How common: Common

Alien species

Heath Cudweed is a perennial member of the daisy family found across the temperate Northern Hemisphere in Eurasia and North America. It grows in open, often dry places such as grasslands and forest edges, and along roadsides. The plant has narrow leaves that are green above and white-felted below, and small, straw-colored flower heads in a long, thin spike.

Did you know?

  • Found across the temperate Northern Hemisphere in both Eurasia and North America.
  • Leaves are two-toned: green above, woolly white underneath.

About the species

Identification

Perennial herb 15–40 cm tall. Stem upright, unbranched, stiff and densely pale-hairy. Many narrow leaves point upward; dull green and only slightly hairy on top but densely white-felted underneath; leaves shorten toward the tip. Small flower heads (about 6 mm) form a long, thin, rather loose spike; heads have shiny, straw-colored scales with pale brown tips and no showy petals. Later, tiny seeds carry a faintly brownish to reddish tuft of hairs. Taller and more upright than most other cudweeds, which are usually lower and more branched. Flowers in mid-summer (July–August) in Finland.

Plant group

Herbaceous plants

Habitat

meadow

Flowering

Jul–Aug

About the habitat

Prefers open, dry to moderately dry places such as meadows, pastures, heaths, sandy ground, forest edges, and roadsides. Common across most of Finland; scarcer in Lapland and absent from the far northwest arm.

Sources

Photo: Екатерина Гущина, CC BY 4.0 https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/6479179929

Text: Pinkka: A Pohjolan kasveja - Gagea-Hepatica, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.39754

Text: Pinkka (Luomus), CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.39754

Text: Pinkka: IPS-153 Flora of Subarctic Europe - Nardus-Pyrola, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.39754

Text: Wikipedia (English), CC BY-SA 4.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omalotheca_sylvatica

See also