Filago (genus)

Filago is a genus of plants in the sunflower family, native to Europe, Asia, and North Africa. They are sometimes called cottonroses or cudweeds.

The name cudweed comes from the fact that they were once used to feed cows that had lost the ability to chew the cud.

Several species are sometimes treated as members of genus Logfia.

Description

They bear woolly, cottony heads of flowers. They have narrow strap-shaped untoothed leaves. The flower heads are small,gathered into dense, stalkless clusters. The fruits have a hairy pappus, or modified calyx, the part of an individual disk, ray or ligule floret surrounding the base of the corolla, in flower heads of the plant family Asteraceae.