Anaphalis contorta (D. Don) Hook.f., Fl. Brit. India 3: 284. 1881. Antemzaria contorta D. Don in Bot. Reg. 7: t. 605. 1825. Anaphalis tenella DC., Prodr. 6: 273. 1838.

Herbs, erect or decumbent, branched, 14 - 40 cm high; stems usually coated with white cottony tomentum. Leaves usually crowded, narrowly linear or oblong, auricled at base, acute or obtuse at apex, usually slightly cusped, margins often revolute, 0.3 - 3.5 x 0.05 - 0.3 cm, 1-nerved, upper surface dull green, puberulous, lower surface felted with white woolly pubescence, sessile. Heads 2 - 4 mm across, in simple or branched terminal corymbose clusters, 2 - 4 mm across; peduncle ca 2 mm long, white tomentose. Involucral bracts many-seriate; outer broadly ovate or oblong, scarious, shining, generally pubescent at base, obtuse or acute; inner white or creamy, sometimes brownish or yellowish at base, narrowly linear-oblong, obtuse or acute. Ray florets yellowish, with filiform corolla, ca 2.5 mm long, obscurely toothed. Disc florets yellowish brown when dry, ca 2.5 mm long, 5-toothed. Achenes of ray florets oblong, ca 0.3 mm long, smooth or verrucose; those of disc florets oblong, ca 0.5 mm long. Pappus hairs white, minutely barbed.

Fl. & Fr. July - March.

Distrib. India: Himalayas, common in Quercus-Rhododendron forest, rocky slopes, meadows (In West Himalayan region), between 1800 - 4200 m. Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya.

Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet, Philippines and China.

Notes. A highly polymorphic species showing considerable variation in the nature of leaves and indumentum.