Eucephalus paucicapitatus |
Eucephalus |
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Olympic mountain-aster |
aster |
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Habit | Perennials 20–55 cm (caudices woody). | Perennials, 10–160 cm (usually cespitose, induments usually of stipitate-glandular and smooth-surfaced, curved or twisted woolly hairs, plants with caudices or short rhizomes, roots fibrous). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stems | ascending to erect, pilose or glandular-pubescent. |
ascending or erect, simple, glabrate, puberulent, pilose, cottony, or woolly, eglandular or glandular. |
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Leaves | mid and distal blades elliptic to elliptic-oblong, 2–4 cm × 4–13 mm, sparsely scabrous to stipitate-glandular abaxially, moderately stipitate-glandular adaxially. |
cauline; alternate; sessile (proximal withering by flowering; proximalmost reduced, scalelike); blades (1-nerved) ovate, elliptic, oblong, lanceolate, or linear (± uniform in size), margins entire, faces glabrate, scabrous, cottony, or woolly, eglandular or stipitate-glandular. |
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Peduncles | stipitate-glandular. |
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Involucres | turbinate-obconic, 7–9 mm. |
turbinate-cylindric, turbinate, turbinate-obconic, or campanulate, 10–25 mm diam. |
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Receptacles | ± flat, pitted, epaleate. |
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Ray florets | 0–21 (usually 5, 8, or 13), pistillate, fertile; corollas violet-purple, purple, pink, or white. |
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Disc florets | 10–35, bisexual, fertile; corollas yellow, ± ampliate, tubes shorter than funnelform throats, lobes 5, erect or reflexed, triangular; style-branch appendages lanceolate. |
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Phyllaries | in 2–3 series (whitish), lance-linear (unequal), apices acute, abaxial faces stipitate-glandular. |
20–50 in 3–6 series, ± unequal (± appressed, often reddish or purplish at margins and tips), 1-nerved (keeled), ovate, lance-oblong, lanceolate, linear-oblong, or linear, chartaceous at bases, margins sometimes hyaline, especially proximally; apices acute to obtuse, green, usually puberulent, tomentose, and/or stipitate-glandular, sometimes glabrous. |
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Heads | usually 2–4 in racemiform to corymbiform arrays, somtimes borne singly. |
radiate or discoid, usually in open, racemiform, paniculiform, or corymbiform arrays, sometimes borne singly. |
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Cypselae | obconic, pilose; pappus bristles in 2 series, ± barbellate. |
± obconic, flattened, laterally 1–2-ribbed, sometimes with 1–2 additional nerves on each face, glabrous, pilose, or strigose, eglandular; pappi persistent, of 30–50 whitish to tawny, barbellate or smooth, apically clavate or more conspicuously barbellate bristles in 2(–3) series (outer usually 1 mm or less, sometimes 0, inner 5–10 mm). |
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Rays | 7–13(–21), white. |
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x | = 9. |
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Eucephalus paucicapitatus |
Eucephalus |
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Phenology | Flowering Jul–Aug. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Habitat | Open subalpine meadows or scree slopes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Elevation | 800–3300 m (2600–10800 ft) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Distribution |
WA; BC
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North America |
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Discussion | Eucephalus paucicapitatus is found on Vancouver Island, where it is very uncommon, and the Olympic Peninsula. It is closely related to E. gormanii. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Species 10 (10 in the flora). Eucephalus, a relatively well-marked western North American group, has been treated as a section of Aster or as a distinct genus. Recent molecular evidence places Eucephalus, together with the eastern North American Doellingeria, at the base of the North American clade of Astereae. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 20, p. 42. | FNA vol. 20, p. 39. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Asteraceae > tribe Astereae > Eucephalus | Asteraceae > tribe Astereae | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Synonyms | Aster engelmannii var. paucicapitatus, Aster paucicapitatus | Aster section E., Aster subsection E. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Name authority | (B. L. Robinson) Greene: Pittonia 3: 56. (1896) | Nuttall: Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc., n. s. 7: 298. (1840) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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