[f. CUD sb.: the plant being administered to cattle that had lost their cud.] The common name for the genus Gnaphalium of composite plants, having chaffy scales surrounding the flower-heads: originally proper to G. sylvaticum; extended to other plants, of allied genera, or similar appearance.
1548. Turner, Names of Herbes, 25. Centunculus … maye be called in englishe Chafweede, it is called in Yorke shyre cudweede.
1597. Gerarde, Herbal, II. cxcv. 515. English Cudweed hath sundrie slender and vpright stalks.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, II. 76/1. The Cotton Weed or Cud-Weed.
1854. S. Thomson, Wild Fl., III. (ed. 4), 248. The little silvery-looking cudweeds, or Gnaphaliums.
1879. Prior, Plant-n., Sea-Cudweed, Diotis maritima.
1884. Miller, Plant-n., American Cud-weed, Antennaria margaritacea. Golden C., Pterocaulon virgatum.
