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wayside aster

aster

Habit Perennials, 60–120 cm (caudices stout). 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

erect, pilose to glandular-pubescent.

ascending or erect, simple, glabrate, puberulent, pilose, cottony, or woolly, eglandular or glandular.

Leaves

middle and distal cauline blades lanceolate-elliptic, 5–9 cm × 15–30 mm, abaxial faces usually glabrous, sometimes sparsely pubescent, adaxial faces glandular-pubescent.

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.

Peduncles

stipitate-glandular.

Involucres

turbinate, 8–10 mm.

turbinate-cylindric, turbinate, turbinate-obconic, or campanulate, 10–25 mm diam.

Receptacles

± flat, pitted, epaleate.

Ray florets

0.

0–21 (usually 5, 8, or 13), pistillate, fertile;

corollas violet-purple, purple, pink, or white.

Disc florets

10–35, bisexual, fertile;

corollas yellow, ± ampliate, tubes shorter than funnelform throats, lobes 5, erect or reflexed, triangular;

style-branch appendages lanceolate.

Phyllaries

in 3–6 series (sometimes reddish at margins and apices), linear to linear-oblong (strongly unequal), apices acute to acuminate, 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.

Heads

5–50(–120) in racemiform to paniculiform arrays.

radiate or discoid, usually in open, racemiform, paniculiform, or corymbiform arrays, sometimes borne singly.

Cypselae

pilose;

pappus bristles in 2 series, smooth or ± 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).

x

= 9.

Eucephalus vialis

Eucephalus

Phenology Flowering Jul.
Habitat Dry open oak or coniferous woods
Elevation 200–500 m (700–1600 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
OR
[BONAP county map]
from USDA
North America
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Of conservation concern.

Eucephalus vialis is only known from Lane and Douglas counties. It is considered threatened. It is in the Center for Plant Conservation’s National Collection of Endangered Plants.

(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.)

Key
1. Ray florets usually 1–4, often 0
→ 2
1. Ray florets commonly 5, 8, or 13+
→ 5
2. Ray florets 0; leaves 5–9 cm, ± glabrous abaxially, glandular adaxially; plants 60–120 cm; open woods, Lane County, Oregon
E. vialis
2. Ray florets usually 1–4; leaves 2–6 cm, hairy; plants 10–100 cm
→ 3
3. Leaves glabrous or nearly so abaxially, moderately to densely hairy adaxially
E. tomentellus
3. Leaves glabrous, eglandular or sparsely glandular on both faces
→ 4
4. Phyllaries subequal
E. breweri
4. Phyllaries strongly unequal
E. glabratus
5. Stems, leaves, and phyllaries glabrous, glaucous; plants 40–160 cm; leaves linear tonarrowly lance-elliptic, 4–10 cm; rays purple
E. glaucescens
5. Stems, leaves, and phyllaries pubescent or glabrate, glandular or not, not glaucous; plants 10–120(–150) cm; leaves elliptic, oblong, lance-ovate, lance-elliptic, lanceolate, linear-oblong or -lanceolate, 1.5–10 cm; rays white, pink, violet, or purple.
→ 6
6. Leaves 5–10 cm, elliptic to lanceolate, glabrous and eglandular, or abaxially ± glandular and/or villous; plants 50–150 cm; rays white to pink
E. engelmannii
6. Leaves 1.5–7 cm, elliptic, elliptic-oblong, oblong, lance-ovate, lance-elliptic, linear-oblong or -lanceolate, glandular or not, scabrous or cottony; plants 10–80 cm; rays white or violet to purple
→ 7
7. Rays white; stems pilose or sparsely to moderately glandular-pubescent
→ 8
7. Rays violet to purple; stems scabrous (to scabrellous) or cottony and/or glandular-pubescent (especially peduncles)
→ 9
8. Phyllaries lance-ovate; Cascade Mountains, Oregon
E. gormanii
8. Phyllaries lance-linear; Olympic Mountains, Washington
E. paucicapitatus
9. Leaves moderately scabrellous (and sometimes glandular) on both faces
E. elegans
9. Leaves sparsely scabrous abaxially, strongly cottony adaxially
E. ledophyllus
Source FNA vol. 20, p. 42. FNA vol. 20, p. 39. Author: Geraldine A. Allen.
Parent taxa Asteraceae > tribe Astereae > Eucephalus Asteraceae > tribe Astereae
Sibling taxa
E. breweri, E. elegans, E. engelmannii, E. glabratus, E. glaucescens, E. gormanii, E. ledophyllus, E. paucicapitatus, E. tomentellus
Subordinate taxa
E. breweri, E. elegans, E. engelmannii, E. glabratus, E. glaucescens, E. gormanii, E. ledophyllus, E. paucicapitatus, E. tomentellus, E. vialis
Synonyms Aster vialis Aster section E., Aster subsection E.
Name authority Bradshaw: Torreya 20: 122. (1921) Nuttall: Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc., n. s. 7: 298. (1840)
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