Gamochaeta purpurea, the purple cudweed, purple everlasting, or spoonleaf purple everlasting, is a plant native to North America.
Description It is a small annual herb that produces lanceolate, alternate, wooly leaves and peg-shaped flowerheads in terminal clusters. The seeds are windborne. It can reach a height of approximately 0.4 meters (1.25 feet).Gee, K. L., et al. (1994). White-tailed deer: their foods and management in the cross timbers. Ardmore, OK, Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation.
Habitat It can grow on most any type of soil that is moderately moist, but prefers meadows, rocky terrain, and farmland.
Conservation status in the United States It is listed as endangered in Massachusetts and New York, as possibly extirpated in Maine, as historical in Rhode Island, and as a special concern species in Connecticut, where it is believed extirpated."Connecticut's Endangered, Threatened and Special Concern Species 2015". State of Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Bureau of Natural Resources. Retrieved 1 January 2018. (Note: This list is newer and updated from the one used by plants.usda.gov)
Ethnobotany The Houma people take a decoction of the dried plant for colds and influenza.Speck, Frank G., 1941, A List of Plant Curatives Obtained From the Houma Indians of Louisiana, Primitive Man 14:49-75, page 64
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