Fragrant everlasting is an erect-stemmed, sweet-scented perennial herb growing to some 3-1/2' high.  It is persistently white-woolly throughout, sometimes with a ± greenish-yellow cast.  The leaves are alternate, linear to narrowly lanceolate, 3/4" to
2-1/4" long, and tomentose both above and below.  They are only somewhat reduced upwards, and are noticeably decurrent, especially the upper. The flowers are disciform in small open clusters at the ends of branchlets.  The disk flowers are yellowish, with 30-45 per head.  The heads are campanulate, about 1/4" high, and have rows of over-
lapping phyllaries with obtuse tips that are papery and opaque.  Fragrant everlasting inhabits dry often grassy places in chaparral and coastal sage scrub to an elevation of about 5000', widely ranging from Southern California to Oregon and blooming from July to November.  These photos were taken at the Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Reserve in August.

Click here for Latin name derivations: 1) Pseudognaphalium  2) beneolens.
Pronunciation: su-doe-na-FAY-lee-um ben-ee-OH-lens.
Formerly Gnaphalium canescens ssp. beneolens.
Click here for Botanical Term Meanings.