CAPE CUDWEED

Pseudognaphalium undulatum

(Formerly: Gnaphalium undulatum)
Family [Asteraceae]

Flowers:
month8jun month8june month8jul month8july month8aug month8sep month8sept month8oct

Pappus: pappusZpossible (white, simple)
pappus8jul pappus8july pappus8aug pappus8sep pappus8sept pappus8oct

status
statusZneophyte
flower
flower8yellow
inner
inner8cream
petals
petalsZ0
stem
stem8round
rarity
rarityZscarce
sex
sexZbisexual

unknown date, unknown place. Photo: © Maryline Calabrin
Tall and sturdy, to 80cm high, with several long branches. The leaves are green on the topside and white-woolly hairy on the underside, with the lowest part of the leaf partly fused onto the stem as it joins it (decurrent).


unknown date, unknown place. Photo: © Maryline Calabrin
The flowers are barrel-shaped in terminal clusters. Only the flat tops of the yellow flowers are visible. The stems and flower stalks are also woolly.


unknown date, unknown place. Photo: © Maryline Calabrin
The flowers are all tubular and hidden at the sides by many overlapping fawn-coloured scales (phyllaries). The inner disc florets in each phyllary 'jacket' are bisexual; the outer ones are female. The outer florets may go reddish.


unknown date, unknown place. Photo: © Maryline Calabrin
The receptacle of the flower is flat and without scales. The seeds which were in the centre in tiny hollows have all blown away by means of their parachute hairs.


Not to be semantically confused with : Cape Pigweed (Amaranthus capensis), Cape Pondweed (Aponogeton distachyos), Cape Tulip (Homeria collina), Cape Marguerite (Osteospermum ecklonis), Cape Wattle (Paraserianthes lophantha), Cape Figwort (Phygelius capensis), Cape Gooseberry (Physalis peruviana) nor with Caper Spurge (Euphorbia lathyris) [plants with similar names but in differing genera and families]

It occurs naturalised on cliffs or rough ground in all the Channel Islands, but intermittent and rare elsewhere in the UK.

There are now many differing genera of plants with the common name of 'Cudweed' as taxonomists have discovered several differences in them that were not readily apparent maybe 10 or 20 years ago. There are now 8 differing genera into which the 'Cudweeds' now find themselves segregated into: Filago, (formerly called 'Gifolia' and 'Oglifa'), Logfia (also formerly called 'Gifolia' and 'Oglifa') [has everone noticed that those are all anagrams], Omalotheca, Gnaphalium, Gamochaeta, Pseudognaphalium (formerly also called Gnaphalium) and Laphangium.

Cape Cudweed (Pseudognaphalium undulatum) and Jersey Cudweed (Laphangium luteoalbum) used to be together in the same Gnaphalium genus but they have both been found to be not of that genus, but have now been moved into two separate genera that did not then exist as a name, but do now to accommodate the two. Such is often the result of recent microscopic examination of plant genes.

Visually, there is very little difference between the two. Here are the subtle differences:

CAPE CUDWEED JERSEY CUDWEED
Height 80cm 50cm
Leaf top green white woolly
Leaf underside white woolly white woolly
Leaf attachment decurrent down stem not decurrent down stem
Phyllaries whitish ± scarious straw-coloured scarious


  Pseudognaphalium undulatum  ⇐ Global Aspect ⇒   

Distribution

 BSBI maps
genus8Pseudognaphalium
Pseudognaphalium
(Cape Cudweed)

CAPE CUDWEED

Pseudognaphalium undulatum

(Formerly: Gnaphalium undulatum)
Daisy & Dandelion Family [Asteraceae]