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Resources < Wildlife Habitats < Guide to Native Plants of Georgia for Wildlife < Antennaria plantaginifolia
Pussytoes is a low-growing, cuddly plant best admired on hands and knees. It is fuzzy and pettable in and out of flower (but especially in!) and rivals non-natives with the same fluffy trait like Dusty Miller, Lamb’s Ears, and Rose Campion. Its hairs serve an important biological function: they reflect light and heat and help keep the plant cool in the hot, rocky, and dry habitats it naturally favors.
It spreads readily underground, and eventually forms clumps of rosettes which cover the ground. It is an astounding native groundcover. It tolerates heat and drought, spreads and establishes quickly, covers the most unsightly and difficult places in the landscape, and has excellent foliage and even better flowers which attract and feed native insect life. What more is there to ask for?
Plant some Pussytoes and let this gentle, lovable plant tread its paws all over your garden.
Asteraceae (Sunflower)
Dense, low-growing rosetted perennial. Basal leaves are spoon-shaped, narrow toward the base and oblanceolate toward the apex, wooly, and 7-8cm long by 2cm wide. Rosetted leaves are much wider and more rounded. Each crown sports a slender, erect woolly stem bearing a terminal cluster of fuzzy, densely packed white flower heads that resemble a cat’s paw. Plants are dioecious, but female plants can still bear viable seed without any pollination. Female flowers are fuzzier than the males. Fruits are also fuzzy.
2” tall mat as rosettes, 6-18” tall when in flower
Low-growing rosetted herbaceous perennial
Fast
Partial shade, or full sun in the morning and evening but not afternoon.
Plant in dry and lightly shaded landscapes and plants will perform wonderfully. The most important consideration is the soil, which must be very well-drained for good performance. Plants can become floppy and may need pinching, but otherwise require little maintenance or irrigation.
Pussytoes makes an excellent native groundcover for much of the year. Another asset is the silvery, puffy flowers when in bloom.
Pussytoes works well as a groundcover underneath single specimen trees, where it is shaded by direct, strong overhead sun at high noon but obtains ample morning and evening sun. It also works well as a groundcover mixed with a native plant bed and including drought tolerant plants like grasses and Coneflowers. It also combines well with plants in a rock garden.
The wooly leaves of this plant are an important food for the beautiful American Painted Lady, whose colorful adult wings look like stained glass. The foliage may be browsed by deer in the winter. Plants are otherwise generally pest-free.
Eastern half of the US from Maine to Minnesota south to Missouri and east to Georgia. It favors lawns, pastures and dry or open woods.
Seeds, division of clumps
Also known as Ladies’ Tobacco
Written by Kevin Tarner, Georgia Wildlife Federation
Photos courtesy Mrs. DW Bransford and Sally & Andy Wasowski, Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center
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