Gnaphalium

Non-stoloniferous, annual or perennial herbs with eglandular cottony hairs. Leaves alternate, sessile or pseudopetiolate, entire. Capitula c. campanulate, aggregated into a terminal cluster, sometimes subtended by a whorl of leaves. Involucral bracts in 2–4 series, more or less equal in length, the outer part papery, translucent or hyaline, often brownish. Florets all tubular; outer florets filiform, female, corolla 3- or 4-lobed; inner florets bisexual, fewer than female florets, corolla purple or yellow, 5-lobed, anthers shortly tailed, style branches linear, apices truncate. Cypselas flattened-ellipsoid, with microscopic imbricate papillae and sparse, short, clavate hairs; pappus hairs barbellate, sometimes shortly ciliate at base, those of the bisexual florets slightly dilated at apex, not united at base and falling singly or in small groups.