Japanese name: ウラジロチチコグサ（裏白父子草） Scientific name:Gamochaeta coarctata
[Overview]
A winter annual 15–35 cm tall, found by roadsides and in vacant lots.
The stem branches freely from the base and is densely covered with white cottony hairs.
There are basal leaves and stem leaves; the basal leaves remain during the flowering season.
The stem leaves are simple, alternate and elliptic, 3–8 cm long and 0.6–1.5 cm wide.
Dense white cottony hairs on the underside make the leaves look white.
The leaf margins are wavy.
A long spike-like inflorescence 2–20 cm long is borne at the top of the stem, bearing many flower heads 0.4 cm across.
The involucral bracts are glossy yellowish green, sometimes tinged with purple to rose.
The fruit is an achene.
[History]
It became known in the late 1965–1974 period (the latter half of the Showa 40s), and it is now naturalized in many places.
