Anaphalis margaritacea photomicrography

Humans are not the only wanderers.

Pearly Everlasting crossed Beringia too—

male and female, scattering seed.

Anaphalis margaritacea has what is called a circumboreal distribution, meaning that it is found on the landmasses that surround the North Pole. Some species that have a circumboreal distribution, such as pines, owe this spread to the breakup of Laurasia, (the northern part of Pangaea) about 83-56 MYA. However, the asters are a relatively young plant family, and although some circumboreal asters may have ridden the continental drift with the pines, the ancestors of Anaphalis evolved in Africa and spread across Asia and into the new world across Beringia. Anaphalis magaritacea is dioecious, meaning that staminate (pollen-bearing) and pistillate (seed-bearing) plants must have travelled together, ensuring the spread of the next generation.