Scientific name: Antennaria dioica (L.) Gaertn.
Common names: Cat’s foot, Mountain everlasting, Mountain cudweed
Description
Habit: Perennial.
Stems: Tufted and creeping.
Leaves: Mostly basal, short-stalked, oval or oblong, untoothed, white and soft hairy beneath; stem leaves linear and erect.
Flowers: Flower-heads in clusters of 3-5; dioecious (male florets have a style and ill-formed achene, the female florets are fluffier in appearance); involucral bracts numerous and overlapping, those of the inner row large, pink or white and resembling radiating florets; florets all tubular, pink or white.
Fruits: An achene, pappus of unbranched hairs.
Habitat: Limestone pavement and other rocks, stony or gravelly pastures, heaths, screes and sand dunes.
Distribution: Abundant in the Burren limestones, frequent in the Aran, widespread to local elsewhere.
Native status: Native
Of conservation interest: No