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How to Manage Pests

Identification: Weed Photo Gallery

Purple cudweed

Scientific name: Gnaphalium purpureum (Family Asteraceae)

Life stages of Purple cudweed

Click on image to enlarge

DESCRIPTION:
Purple cudweed is a low-growing summer or winter annual. Seed leaves are smooth, rounded, and grayish green. The first true leaves are covered with web-like silky hairs. In young plants, stems do not elongate and leaves form a rosette. In mature plants, stems elongate from the rosette but do not usually branch. Leaves on elongating stems are alternate, and the upper surface is covered with woolly white hairs. The flower heads are crowded, spikelike, and densely arranged on the stem or at the base of leaf stalks. Individual flowers are tan to white and surrounded by light brown, pink, or purple bracts. The fruit bears bristly, tuftlike projections that are shed at maturity.

Broadleaf ID illustration.


Statewide IPM Program, Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of California
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For noncommercial purposes only, any Web site may link directly to this page. FOR ALL OTHER USES or more information, read Legal Notices. Unfortunately, we cannot provide individual solutions to specific pest problems. See How to manage pests, or in the U.S., contact your local Cooperative Extension office for assistance. /PMG/WEEDS/purple_cudweed.html revised: March 11, 2008. Contact webmaster.