Pussytoes and winter sowing

Winter has arrived and with it a bit more time to look after a few postponed seeds. There were a couple of wild collected Antennaria species put ‘on hold’ for good reason. They are difficult to identify, sometimes even specialists may encounter problems because of the widespread polyploidy and apomixy among them.

Most Antennaria species are excellent plants for rockeries, especially due to their silvery foliage and we cannot pass the occasion growing them from wild collected seeds when they are available.

A third species put on hold until I was sure how many seeds can be offered was Erythranthe lewisii. Lewis Monketflower or Pink monkey-flower (syn. Mimulus lewisii), is a showy inhabitant of moist streambanks, seepage areas and avalanche tracks of the montane and lower alpine zones.

All species can be found in the Seed List now.

The first Antennaria was found in a meadow at the edge of the woods along the Bow Valley in the Banff area. The silvery foliage forms mats at the ground level (see the gallery) and the flowering stems are up to about 15 cm.  After looking over various details many times, I may stand to be corrected, but all characters of the mother-plants fit in with the A. rosea group. The subspecies has been assigned considering the collection place: Antennaria rosea ssp. pulvinata.

Plants under the name of Antennaria rosea can differ morphologically because it has a wide distribution and grows in a variety of habitats. For this reason, it is best to keep in your records the collection place.

The second Antennaria species from which I collected a few seeds at a much higher altitude is Antennaria lanata, woolly pussytoes. This species belongs to the pussytoes group with erect, longer leaves, together with A. pulcherrima and A. anaphaloides.

It was seen in various locations, in the company of Cassiope and Luetkea pectinata, which suggests the need for an acidic substrate. Factoring in the elevation, meaning a thick layer of snow present until late spring followed by plenty of moisture, makes this species less compatible with the hot & super dry summers of SW Ontario (this will not stop me from trying it out!).

More pictures showing companion species are presented in the gallery below.

By tradition, I always sow on Dec. 1^st part of the species in need of cold/moist stratification; this time the pussytoes and some of their companions.

Those who are preparing to do the same, please review this post where I briefly outlined why sowing in late Nov/December it is different than sowing in September and how to handle the sowings: Practical advice for sowing in the winter.

Pictures taken in the wild will sometimes not catch the plants at their best time, but we can always draw inspiration for our gardens from them, especially by noticing the companion species growing in the same place.