Citation: L., Sp. Pl. 850 (1753).

Derivation: Greek gnaphalion, down; referring to the soft white vestiture of the leaves and stems.

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: Cudweeds.

Description:
Annual and perennial herbs with woolly or cobwebby non-glandular vestiture; stems terete, leafy; leaves basal and cauline, alternate, sessile, entire.

Inflorescence a cluster of small subsessile discoid heterogamous capitula; involucres cylindrical to ovoid, 2-5-seriate, widely spreading in fruit; bracts scarious or with a herbaceous base and midrib, unequal to subequal; receptacle more or less convex, naked; outer florets female; corollas filiform to narrowly conical; style branches filiform, glabrous; inner florets bisexual, tubular, 5-merous, fertile; corollas narrowly cylindrical or dilated above, with minute pubescent lobes; anthers sagittate or tailed at the base with short terminal appendages; style branches subterete, truncate with papillose apices.

Achenes all similar, subterete, more or less papillose; pappus uniseriate, of minutely barbellate bristles, sometimes absent from the female florets, deciduous.

Distribution:  About 200 species throughout the world; about 30 in Australia.

Biology: No text

Key to Species:

1. Capitula in a dense elongated panicle
2. Biennial with a basal rosette; leaves white below, dark-green above	G. spicatum 8.
2. Annuals without distinct basal rosettes; leaves similarly green and hairy on both surfaces
3. Pappus bristles free	G. polycaulon 6.
3. Pappus bristles joined at the base	G. subfalcatum 9.
1. Capitula in a dense globose head
4. Leaves white- or grey-woolly on both surfaces
5. Leaves oblanceolate	G. diamantinense 1.
5. Leaves narrowly oblong to linear	G. indutum 4.
4. Leaves white-tomentose below, green and glabrous to cobwebby above
6. Annual; bisexual floret solitary in each capitulum	G. sphaericum 7.
6. Stoloniferous perennials; bisexual florets 3 or more in each capitulum
7. Rosette of basal leaves prominent and alive at flowering time
8. Head with 2-9 capitula; flowering stem 2-10 cm long	G. ensifer 2.
8. Head with 10-20 capitula; flowering stem 10-30 cm long	G. gymnocephalum 3.
7. Rosette of basal leaves small, dead at flowering time	G. involucratum 5.

Author: Not yet available