Anaphalis royleana var. cana - Linear-Leaf Pearly Everlasting

Linear-Leaf Pearly Everlasting is a perennial herb, up to 35 cm high, much branched from the base, stem slender, woody at base, woolly to woolly, lower part sparsely hairless, leaves linear, margins entire or recurved 7-30 x 1-2 mm, rough above, densely greyish-whitish woolly beneath or woolly on both surfaces, single-veined. Flower-heads are many, white in branch-ends corymbs. Phyllaries are 8-10 seriate, 55-80, outer ovate, lower part thickened, dark brown or entirely brown, middle one longest, ovate to elliptic, pointed, 5-7 mm long, usually white above, inner ones oblong, smaller. In predominantly male flower-heads, bisexual florets 16-18 and 2-3 thread-like female florets; in predominantly female flower-heads, female florets about 40, and bisexual floret (functionally male) 3-5. Flowers 2.5-3.5 mm long, with glandular lobes. Cypselas of female florets about 0.75 mm long, dark brown, papillose, oblong; pappus 2.8-3.5 mm, white, bristly. Linear-Leaf Pearly Everlasting is found in Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, between 3000-4000 m, on boulders, among crevices and slopes;