an old cottage garden plant of southeastern Europe widely cultivated for its attractive white woolly foliage and showy crimson flowers herb with greyish leaves found along the east coast of North America; used as an ornamental plant a plant having leaves and stems covered with down that resembles dust stiff much-branched perennial of the Mediterranean region having very white woolly stems and leaves shrubby perennial of the Canary Islands having white flowers and leaves and hairy stems covered with dustlike down; sometimes placed in genus Chrysanthemum