Logfia is a small genus of annual herbaceous plants in the daisy family Asteraceae, placed in the tribe Gnaphalieae. The plants are commonly called cottonrose, a name shared with the closely related genus Filago, from which several Logfia species were formerly segregated. Together with Oglifa, these genera form a tight cluster of woolly-stemmed, inconspicuous annuals whose floral heads are densely packed with cottony or woolly bracts.
Plants in the genus are typically small, erect or spreading annuals covered in white-woolly or grayish tomentose hairs. The flower heads are clustered in leaf axils and at stem tips, each head containing only a few florets surrounded by chaffy scales. The genus comprises around four to five accepted species.
Logfia has a primarily Mediterranean and Macaronesian distribution. Species such as L. gallica (narrowleaf cottonrose) and L. minima (small cudweed) are native across Europe, the Mediterranean basin, Macaronesia, and north-western Africa, and have been introduced as weeds to North America and Australia.
Distribution
Logfia species are native to Macaronesia, Europe, the Mediterranean basin, Caucasus, and north-western Africa. Logfia gallica and Logfia minima have both been introduced beyond their native ranges to Great Britain, western North America, Mexico, and Australia.
Taxonomy Notes
Species now placed in Logfia were historically treated within the closely related genera Filago and Oglifa. The three genera belong to tribe Gnaphalieae (family Asteraceae) and share the characteristic woolly-bracted capitula of that group. Circumscription of Logfia relative to Filago has varied among different taxonomic treatments.
