Erigeron eximius |
Erigeron grandiflorus |
|
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spruce-fir fleabane |
large-flower daisy, large-flower fleabane, onestem fleabane, Rocky Mountain alpine fleabane |
|
Habit | Perennials, 15–60 cm; rhizomatous, fibrous-rooted, caudices or primary rhizomes slender, simple or branched, usually producing slender, herbaceous, scale-leaved stolons bearing terminal leaf tufts. | Perennials, 2–25 cm; rhizomatous, fibrous-rooted, caudices or rhizomes crownlike or branches relatively short and thick. |
Stems | erect to ascending, usually glabrous, sometimes sparsely hirsuto-pilose proximal to heads, densely minutely glandular to nearly eglandular. |
erect to decumbent-ascending, sparsely to moderately pilose to villoso-hirsute, often stipitate-glandular over all or part. |
Leaves | basal (persistent) and cauline; basal blades spatulate to elliptic-spatulate (to oblanceolate-obovate), 30–150 × 9–35 mm; cauline gradually reduced distally (bases usually clasping to subclasping), margins entire or serrulate to mucronulate with 3–5 pairs of teeth, faces glabrous, distal often glandular. |
basal (persistent) and cauline (petioles equaling or shorter than blades); blades oblanceolate to obovate or spatulate, 10–60(–90) × 3–8(–14) mm, cauline abruptly or gradually reduced distally, margins entire (apices rounded), faces sparsely hirsutulous or villous to sparsely strigose or glabrate, sometimes sparsely glandular. |
Involucres | 7–9 × 11–19 mm. |
5–8(–10) × 8–20 mm. |
Ray florets | 40–80; corollas white to bluish or lavender, 12–20 mm, laminae coiling. |
50–130; corollas blue to pink or purplish, rarely white, 7–11(–15) mm (mostly 1–2 mm wide), laminae coiling. |
Disc corollas | (3.6–)4–5.8 mm. |
2.4–4(–5) mm. |
Phyllaries | in 3–4 series (often purplish), usually glabrous, sometimes sparsely villous at bases, minutely glandular. |
in 2–3 series (green or purplish), moderately to densely woolly-villous (hairs flattened, cross walls sometimes reddish), minutely glandular at least apically. |
Heads | 1–5(–15). |
1. |
Cypselae | 1.8–2.5 mm, 2(–4)-nerved, faces sparsely strigose; pappi: outer of setae, inner of 20–30 bristles. |
1.8–2.4 mm, 2-nerved, faces strigose; pappi: outer of setae, inner of (7–)10–18(–22) bristles. |
2n | = 18, 36. |
= 18, 27. |
Erigeron eximius |
Erigeron grandiflorus |
|
Phenology | Flowering Jul–Oct. | Flowering Jul–Aug(–Sep). |
Habitat | Margins or openings, pine, aspen, spruce-fir, subalpine meadows | Rocky sites, meadows, alpine or near timberline |
Elevation | 2300–3500 m (7500–11500 ft) | 2900–4200 m (9500–13800 ft) |
Distribution |
AZ; CO; NM; TX; UT; WY
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AZ; CO; ID; MT; NM; OR; UT; WY; AB; BC
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Discussion | Erigeron eximius apparently sometimes forms intermediates with E. formosissimus. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
S. A. Spongberg (1971) recognized only the triploid populations as Erigeron grandiflorus and assigned the diploid ones to E. simplex. He hypothesized that the triploids incorporate genomic elements from an ancestor other than E. simplex. Based on his comments and annotations, however, triploids in southern Canada and the western United States apparently differ from the much more widespread diploids only quantitatively, having involucres and florets at the higher end of size ranges. Morphologic distinctions between the ploidal races do not provide a basis for consistent distinction. Spongberg (p. 200) also noted that “because of the intergrading of morphologic features of plants of Erigeron grandiflorus...the single most important criterion indicative of this taxon is highly irregular [in shape] and greatly abortive pollen.” These pollen features result from meiotic anomalies associated with the triploid condition. Specimen citations by A. Cronquist (1947) for Erigeron grandiflorus were mostly from collections of the species treated here as E. porsildii. He also cited two collections from southwestern Alberta; those and the type collection of E. grandiflorus (from the same region) are disjunct by more than 1500 kilometers from the more northern range of E. porsildii and instead lie at the northern extremity of the range of what previously has generally been identified as E. simplex. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 20, p. 333. | FNA vol. 20, p. 324. |
Parent taxa | Asteraceae > tribe Astereae > Erigeron | Asteraceae > tribe Astereae > Erigeron |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | E. superbus | E. simplex |
Name authority | Greene: Pittonia 3: 295. (1898) | Hooker: Fl. Bor.-Amer. 2: 18, plate 123. (1834) |
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