Flora of North America species comparison

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Eucephalus paucicapitatus

Eucephalus elegans
Eucephalus paucicapitatus

Olympic mountain-aster

elegant aster
Habit Perennials 20–55 cm (caudices woody). Perennials 30–70 cm (caudices woody; herbage scabrous).
Stems

ascending to erect, pilose or glandular-pubescent.

erect, moderately scabrous and/or glandular.
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.

mid and cauline blades linear-oblong or linear-lanceolate, 2–6 cm × 3–10 mm, faces moderately scabrous and ± short-stipitate-glandular.
Peduncles

stipitate-glandular.

glandular-puberulent.
Involucres

turbinate-obconic, 7–9 mm.

turbinate-cylindric, 6–9 mm.
Phyllaries

in 2–3 series (whitish), lance-linear (unequal), apices acute, abaxial faces stipitate-glandular.

in 3–5 series (often purplish at margins), ovate, margins eciliate, apices acute, abaxial faces moderately to densely puberulent and glandular.
Heads

usually 2–4 in racemiform to corymbiform arrays, somtimes borne singly.

3–8(–15) in racemiform to corymbiform arrays.
Cypselae

obconic, pilose;

pappus bristles in 2 series, ± barbellate.

strigose;

pappus bristles in 2 series, barbellate.
Rays

7–13(–21), white.

usually 5 or 8, purple.
2n

= 18.

Eucephalus paucicapitatus

Eucephalus elegans
Phenology Flowering Jul–Aug. Flowering Jul–Aug.
Habitat Open subalpine meadows or scree slopes Open meadows, aspen forests, rocky open slopes
Elevation 800–3300 m [2600–10800 ft] 1100–3200 m [3600–10500 ft]
Distribution
from FNA
WA; BC
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
CO; ID; MT; NV; OR; UT
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
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.)
Source FNA vol. 20, p. 42. FNA vol. 20, p. 40.
Parent taxa Asteraceae > tribe Astereae > Eucephalus Asteraceae > tribe Astereae > Eucephalus
Sibling taxa
E. breweri, E. elegans, E. engelmannii, E. glabratus, E. glaucescens, E. gormanii, E. ledophyllus, E. tomentellus, E. vialis
E. breweri, E. engelmannii, E. glabratus, E. glaucescens, E. gormanii, E. ledophyllus, E. paucicapitatus, E. tomentellus, E. vialis
Synonyms Aster engelmannii var. paucicapitatus, Aster paucicapitatus Aster perelegans, E. perelegans
Name authority (B. L. Robinson) Greene: Pittonia 3: 56. (1896) Nuttall: Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc., n. s. 7: 298. (1840)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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