Index
Practical ecological knowledge for the temperate reader.

Pearly Everlasting - Anaphalis Margaritacea

Young Leaves Dye, Incence, Smoking Mixture, Tinder Dermatological, Rheumatism, Coughs, Colds, Flu, Headache

Description

Synonyms

  • Gnaphalium margaritaceum.[PFAF][E-flora]
  • Antennaria margaritacea.[PFAF]
  • Anaphalis margaritacea var. angustior (Miq.) Nakai [E-flora]
  • Anaphalis margaritacea var. intercedens H. Hara [E-flora]
  • Anaphalis margaritacea var. occidentalis Greene [E-flora]
  • Anaphalis margaritacea var. revoluta Suksd. [E-flora]
  • Anaphalis margaritacea var. subalpina A. Gray [E-flora]
  • Anaphalis occidentalis (Greene) A. Heller [E-flora]

General 20-100 cm tall. [PPNC]
Lifecycle Perennial [PFAF]
Flowers In August. dioecious (male or female)[PFAF] disk flowers yellowish [IFBC-E-flora], surrounded by pearly white bracts. [WildPNW] Dry. [PPNC]
Fruits Very small, roughened, hairless to sparsely hairy achenes. [PPNC]
Leaves Leaves linear [PSW] to lanceolate [HNW] and alternately arranged. [PSW] Greenish above [PPNC] with sparse white hairs, thickly covered beneath[WildPNW] with white-woolly hairs. [PPNC] margins often rolled under. [IFBC-E-flora]
Stem Stems erect [WildPNW], usually unbranched [IFBC-E-flora] and usually clustered [HNW]
Root Rhizomes.[PPNC]
Habitat Moist to dry meadows, open forests, logging units, fields and roadsides in the lowland, montane and subalpine zones.[IFBC-E-flora]
Range Common and widespread throughout our region.[PPNC] All but NE BC; N to AK, YT, and NT, E to NF and NS and S to NC, KY, AZ, NM and CA.[IFBC-E-flora] "Interruptedly circumboreal, in North America from NL (Labrador) and NL (Newfoundland) west to AK, south to NC, TN, OK, TX, NM, CA, and Baja California." [Weakley FSMAS]
Status Native.[E-flora] An American native, introduced to and now established in Britian.[DPL Watts]
Ecological Indicator Shade-intolerant, submontane to subalpine. Water-shedding sites within alpine tundra, boreal. cool temperate, and cool mesothermal climates. Exposed mineral soil on cutover sites, clearings, and waysides. Characteristic of disturbed sites.[IPBC-E-flora]
Related Genera Gnaphalium Sp & Antennaria Sp.

Food

Other Uses

Medicinal Usage

"The herbage of western pearly-everlasting has been used as a tobacco substitute to relieve headaches. As a tea, the plant has been used for colds, bronchial coughs, and throat infections. The whole plant can be used as a wash or poultice for external wounds. It has also been used for rheumatism, burns, sores, bruises, and swellings (Strike 1994)." [Vizgirdas WPSN]

Popular Indications: Asthma, Bronchosis, Bruise, Burn, Catarrh, Cold, Cough, Dermatosis, Diarrhea, Dysentery, Insomnia, Nervousness, Pain, Paralysis, Pulmonosis, Rheumatism, Sore, Tumor.[HMH Duke] influenza medicine. [PPNC] "Foot numbness/sores; blurred vision" [Ramzan PESR]


Phytochemistry

  • (Monoterpenes)
    • Anaphalin [MPPW]
    • gnaphalin [MPPW]
  • (Flavones)
    • luteolin [MPPW]
    • quecitin [MPPW]
    • Flavonoids: Seven galangin (3,5,7-trihydroxyflavone) derivatives, 6-C-prenylpinocembrin, 2',4',6'-trihydroxy-3'-C-prenylchalcone and quercetin were identified as constituents of A. margaritacea by Wollenweber et ai. (1993b). [Bohm FSF]
  • (Phytosterols) - Plant [DukePhyto]
  • Volatile oils (very little) [MPPW]
  • Tannin - Plant [DukePhyto]

Pharmacology

  • Analgesic [HMH Duke]
  • Astringent [HMH Duke]
  • Emetic [HMH Duke]
  • Expectorant [HMH Duke]
  • Laxative [HMH Duke]
  • Pectoral [HMH Duke]
  • Sedative [HMH Duke]
  • Tonic [HMH Duke]
  • Vermifuge [HMH Duke]

Cultivation

"Prefers a light well-drained soil and a sunny position[1, 133]. Requires a moist soil[208]. Succeeds in most soils[200], including poor ones[1], and also in light shade[200]. Succeeds in the shade of buildings, but not of trees[233]." [PFAF]

Propagation


Anaphalis - Pearly-Everlasting

Perennial herb [subshrub], fibrous-rooted, from rhizome; ± dioecious.
Stem: generally erect.
Leaf: basal and cauline, alternate, sessile [petioled], linear to lanceolate or oblanceolate, narrowed at base, entire, adaxially green and ± glabrous or ± gray-tomentose, abaxially generally white to gray, tomentose or becoming glabrous, glandular or not.
Inflorescence: heads discoid or disciform, ± unisexual (sometimes a few pistillate flowers peripheral in generally staminate heads or 1–9 staminate flowers central in generally pistillate heads), in tight groups in ± flat-topped or panicle-like cluster; involucre ± spheric; receptacle flat, epaleate, glabrous; phyllaries ± graduated in 8–12 series, bright white, opaque, often proximally woolly.
Pistillate flower: many; corolla ± yellow, narrowly tubular, minutely lobed; anthers 0.
Staminate flower: corolla ± yellow; anther tip ovate; style tips truncate.
Fruit: oblong to obconic, 2-veined, papillate with club-shaped hairs; pappus bristles generally deciduous, free or basally fused, tips club-shaped in staminate flowers.
± 100 species: mostly Eurasia, 1 North America. (Ancient name or perhaps from generic name Gnaphalium) [Nesom 2006 FNANM 19:426–427] [Jepson] "The genus Anaphalis (Asteraceae) consists of about 80 species distributed throughout the world and more than 50 species are distributed in china [1] and 31 species reported in India [2]." [Khemani CP]

Local Species

Non-local Species

Aphid Host Plant

References


Page last modified on Monday, January 3, 2022 0:45 AM