FNA: Eurybia conspicua

	Eurybia conspicua
	showy aster, showy wood-aster, western showy aster
Habit	Plants 30–100 cm; forming loose clones, short-stipitate-glandular; rhizomes long to short, woody.
Stems	1, erect, seldom branched proximally, stout, proximally glabrate to villous and sparsely glandular (sometimes to base), distally glabrate, strongly glandular.
Leaves	cauline, thick, ample, bases clasping, margins ± revolute, sharply serrate (rarely subentire) with ± mucronate teeth, veins prominent, apices acute to acuminate, mucronate, faces scabrous, adaxial veins villous; proximal cauline deciduous by flowering, winged-subpetiolate to sessile, blades oblanceolate to ovate or obovate, smaller than mid, bases tapering; mid usually sessile, sometimes subsessile, obovate or elliptic, (40–)58–140(–180) × (8–)20–50(–80) mm, bases cuneate to mostly rounded-subauriculate; distal (in arrays) sessile, ovate to oblanceolate, lanceolate, or elliptic, (8–)10–60(–90) × 2–28(–40) mm, strongly reduced distally.
Peduncles	sometimes sparsely hairy, stipitate-glandular; bracts usually 0, sometimes 1–3.
Involucres	campanulate, 9–12 mm, shorter than pappi.
Ray florets	12–35; corollas blue or violet, (8–)10–15 × 1.2–2 mm.
Disc florets	48–55; corollas yellow, 9–10 mm, slightly ampliate, tubes narrowly cylindric, slightly longer than narrowly funnelform throats, lobes erect, lanceolate, 0.7–1.3 mm.
Phyllaries	34–55 in 4–5 series, midnerves translucent, strongly unequal, membranous, bases indurate, dark green distally, margins densely ciliate, apices spreading or ± squarrose, purple (mucro), acute or acuminate (sometimes mucronate), faces glabrous, densely stipitate-glandular; outer ovate or lanceolate; inner oblong-lanceolate, margins hyaline, often purplish distally, scarious.
Heads	5–50 in open corymbiform arrays.
Cypselae	tan, fusiform, ± compressed, 3–4 mm, ribs 8–10, appressed-setose; pappi of cinnamon to pinkish bristles 9–10 mm, about as long as disc corollas.
2n	= ca. 108, ca. 122.

	Eurybia conspicua
Phenology	Flowering summer–fall.
Habitat	Open, mesic conifer (spruce-fir, pine, or aspen-conifer) or aspen woods, from foothills to upper montane zone, mesic to dry meadows, forest openings, in somewhat clayey soils, adapted to spring fires
Elevation	300–2500 m (1000–8200 ft)
Distribution	ID; MT; OR; SD; WA; WY; AB; BC; MB; SK [WildflowerSearch map] [BONAP county map]
Discussion	Eurybia conspicua is a western boreo-montane taxon; it ranges from the Interior Mountains and Plateaus to the Rocky Mountains, and spreads onto the northern Great Plains in the aspen parklands-southern boreal forests of Canada, barely into western Manitoba. It is disjunct to the Black Hills (South Dakota) and Cypress Hills (Alberta-Saskatchewan). It stops at the Canadian Shield due to soil preferences (A. J. Breitung 1988). This taxon has the highest chromosome number in the genus. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source	FNA vol. 20, p. 368.
Parent taxa	Asteraceae > tribe Astereae > Eurybia
Sibling taxa	E. avita, E. chlorolepis, E. compacta, E. divaricata, E. eryngiifolia, E. furcata, E. hemispherica, E. integrifolia, E. jonesiae, E. macrophylla, E. merita, E. mirabilis, E. paludosa, E. radula, E. radulina, E. saxicastelli, E. schreberi, E. sibirica, E. spectabilis, E. spinulosa, E. surculosa, E. ×herveyi
Synonyms	Aster conspicuus
Name authority	(Lindley) G. L. Nesom: Phytologia 77: 259. (1995)
Web links	Local floras: BC, OR, WA Local Web sites: Flora NW, PNW Herbaria WildflowerSearch iNaturalist (observations) USDA Plants Database LBJ Wildflower Center SEINet Plants of the World Online Encyclopedia of Life Wikipedia Google Image Search

Eurybia conspicua

showy aster, showy wood-aster, western showy aster

Habit

Plants 30–100 cm; forming loose clones, short-stipitate-glandular; rhizomes long to short, woody.

Stems

1, erect, seldom branched proximally, stout, proximally glabrate to villous and sparsely glandular (sometimes to base), distally glabrate, strongly glandular.

Leaves

cauline, thick, ample, bases clasping, margins ± revolute, sharply serrate (rarely subentire) with ± mucronate teeth, veins prominent, apices acute to acuminate, mucronate, faces scabrous, adaxial veins villous;

proximal cauline deciduous by flowering, winged-subpetiolate to sessile, blades oblanceolate to ovate or obovate, smaller than mid, bases tapering;

mid usually sessile, sometimes subsessile, obovate or elliptic, (40–)58–140(–180) × (8–)20–50(–80) mm, bases cuneate to mostly rounded-subauriculate;

distal (in arrays) sessile, ovate to oblanceolate, lanceolate, or elliptic, (8–)10–60(–90) × 2–28(–40) mm, strongly reduced distally.

Peduncles

sometimes sparsely hairy, stipitate-glandular;

bracts usually 0, sometimes 1–3.

Involucres

campanulate, 9–12 mm, shorter than pappi.

Ray florets

12–35;

corollas blue or violet, (8–)10–15 × 1.2–2 mm.

Disc florets

48–55;

corollas yellow, 9–10 mm, slightly ampliate, tubes narrowly cylindric, slightly longer than narrowly funnelform throats, lobes erect, lanceolate, 0.7–1.3 mm.

Phyllaries

34–55 in 4–5 series, midnerves translucent, strongly unequal, membranous, bases indurate, dark green distally, margins densely ciliate, apices spreading or ± squarrose, purple (mucro), acute or acuminate (sometimes mucronate), faces glabrous, densely stipitate-glandular;

outer ovate or lanceolate;

inner oblong-lanceolate, margins hyaline, often purplish distally, scarious.

Heads

5–50 in open corymbiform arrays.

Cypselae

tan, fusiform, ± compressed, 3–4 mm, ribs 8–10, appressed-setose;

pappi of cinnamon to pinkish bristles 9–10 mm, about as long as disc corollas.

= ca. 108, ca. 122.

Eurybia conspicua

Phenology

Flowering summer–fall.

Habitat

Open, mesic conifer (spruce-fir, pine, or aspen-conifer) or aspen woods, from foothills to upper montane zone, mesic to dry meadows, forest openings, in somewhat clayey soils, adapted to spring fires

Elevation

300–2500 m (1000–8200 ft)

Distribution

ID; MT; OR; SD; WA; WY; AB; BC; MB; SK

[WildflowerSearch map]

[BONAP county map]

Discussion

Eurybia conspicua is a western boreo-montane taxon; it ranges from the Interior Mountains and Plateaus to the Rocky Mountains, and spreads onto the northern Great Plains in the aspen parklands-southern boreal forests of Canada, barely into western Manitoba. It is disjunct to the Black Hills (South Dakota) and Cypress Hills (Alberta-Saskatchewan). It stops at the Canadian Shield due to soil preferences (A. J. Breitung 1988). This taxon has the highest chromosome number in the genus.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source

FNA vol. 20, p. 368.

Parent taxa

Asteraceae > tribe Astereae > Eurybia

Sibling taxa

E. avita, E. chlorolepis, E. compacta, E. divaricata, E. eryngiifolia, E. furcata, E. hemispherica, E. integrifolia, E. jonesiae, E. macrophylla, E. merita, E. mirabilis, E. paludosa, E. radula, E. radulina, E. saxicastelli, E. schreberi, E. sibirica, E. spectabilis, E. spinulosa, E. surculosa, E. ×herveyi

Synonyms

Aster conspicuus

Name authority

(Lindley) G. L. Nesom: Phytologia 77: 259. (1995)

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).

Choose a data source: Flora of North America, OregonFlora, UW Burke Herbarium

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Eurybia conspicua

Eurybia conspicua