Flora of North America species comparison

The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Eucephalus paucicapitatus

Eucephalus tomentellus
Eucephalus paucicapitatus

Olympic mountain-aster

brickellbush aster, hairy rayless aster, rayless aster
Habit Perennials 20–55 cm (caudices woody). Perennials 40–90 cm (caudices woody).
Stems

ascending to erect, pilose or glandular-pubescent.

erect, woolly or cottony.
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 distal blades lanceolate to elliptic, 2.5–6 cm × 7–20 mm, abaxial faces glabrous or glabrate, adaxial ± densely woolly to cottony.
Peduncles

stipitate-glandular.

pubescent.
Involucres

turbinate-obconic, 7–9 mm.

turbinate, 7–10 mm.
Phyllaries

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

in 4–6 series (often reddish at margins and apices), linear-oblong to ovate (strongly unequal), apices acute, abaxial faces tomentose to stipitate-glandular.
Heads

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

3–40 in racemiform to paniculiform arrays.
Cypselae

obconic, pilose;

pappus bristles in 2 series, ± barbellate.

glabrous or pilose;

pappus bristles in 2 series, ± barbellate.
Rays

7–13(–21), white.

(0–)1–3(–6), violet-purple.

Eucephalus paucicapitatus

Eucephalus tomentellus
Phenology Flowering Jul–Aug. Flowering Jul–Aug.
Habitat Open subalpine meadows or scree slopes Open oak or coniferous woods, forest openings and rocky cliffs
Elevation 800–3300 m [2600–10800 ft] 1300–2400 m [4300–7900 ft]
Distribution
from FNA
WA; BC
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
CA; OR
[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.)

Eucephalus tomentellus grows in the Siskiyou Mountains of southwestern Oregon and northern California. It may intergrade with E. breweri and E. glabratus.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 20, p. 42. FNA vol. 20, p. 42.
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. elegans, E. engelmannii, E. glabratus, E. glaucescens, E. gormanii, E. ledophyllus, E. paucicapitatus, E. vialis
Synonyms Aster engelmannii var. paucicapitatus, Aster paucicapitatus Sericocarpus tomentellus, Aster brickellioides, Aster tomentellus, E. bicolor, E. brickellioides
Name authority (B. L. Robinson) Greene: Pittonia 3: 56. (1896) (Greene) Greene: Pittonia 3: 55. (1896)
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).



Type/paste one or more Latin names into the boxes above; matching taxa will show up below the box as you type. You can use the up/down arrow keys to move through the list.

(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

The species comparison tool is brought to you by:
Northwest Wildflowers