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showy aster, showy wood-aster, western showy aster

rough-leaf aster, rough-leaf wood-aster

Habit Plants 30–100 cm; forming loose clones, short-stipitate-glandular; rhizomes long to short, woody. Plants 10–70 cm, laxly cespitose (grayish green), eglandular; rhizomes elongate, slender, woody.
Stems

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

1–3, ascending to erect, often purple, simple, flexuous, proximally glabrescent or sparsely villous, distally ± densely villous.

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.

cauline, firm, margins slightly revolute, coarsely serrate or (distal) entire, scabrous to strigoso-ciliate, teeth mucronate, ± markedly veined, apices mucronate, abaxial faces scabrous, adaxial scabroso-strigose;

proximal mostly withering by flowering, petioles winged, shorter than blades, bases clasping, blades elliptic to obovate 12–45+ × 7–20+ mm, smaller than mid, apices obtuse;

mid narrowly winged-petiolate (petioles short with ± clasping bases), distally subpetiolate or sessile, blades ovate or elliptic to broadly oblanceolate or obovate, 32–85(–130) × 4–40 mm, gradually reduced distally, bases usually attenuate, sometimes cuneate, apices obtuse to acute;

distal (arrays) oblanceolate to lanceolate, 5–28 × 1–8 mm, more sharply reduced.

Peduncles

sometimes sparsely hairy, stipitate-glandular;

bracts usually 0, sometimes 1–3.

densely villous;

bracts 0–1, scabroso-strigose.

Involucres

campanulate, 9–12 mm, shorter than pappi.

campanulate, 6–9 mm, shorter than pappi.

Ray florets

12–35;

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

10–15;

corollas white to sometimes pale violet or purple, 8.5–11(–13) × 1.3–2.3 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.

30–70;

corollas yellow becoming purple- or pinkish-tinged, 6–7(–8) mm, ± ampliate, tubes equaling to longer than funnelform-campanulate throats, lobes usually erect, sometimes ± spreading, lanceolate, 1–1.3 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.

38–62 in 4–5 series, midnerves slightly raised (outer), oblong (outer) to lanceolate-linear or linear (inner), unequal, membranous, bases indurate, ± rounded, green zones to scarious margins in distal 1/3–1/2 (outer; seldom ± wholly foliaceous) to 1/5 or none (inner), margins often purple, hyaline, narrowly scarious, erose, densely villoso-ciliate, apices appressed, sometimes purplish-tinged, usually acute, sometimes obtuse, adaxial faces villous.

Heads

5–50 in open corymbiform arrays.

5–30+ in flat-topped, 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.

tawny, fusiform, 3–3.5 mm, slightly compressed, ribs 7–9 (brown, translucent), faces strigillose;

pappi of tawny bristles 2.7–3 mm, ± equaling disc corollas.

2n

= ca. 108, ca. 122.

= 18, 27.

Eurybia conspicua

Eurybia radulina

Phenology Flowering summer–fall. Flowering summer.
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 Dry rock outcrops, edges of forests, open forests, mostly on slopes, foothill oak woodlands, oak, oak-fir, yellow pine forests
Elevation 300–2500 m (1000–8200 ft) (10–)100–1600 m ((0–)300–5200 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
ID; MT; OR; SD; WA; WY; AB; BC; MB; SK
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
CA; OR; WA; BC
[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.)

Eurybia radulina is confined mostly west of the Cascades, from southern Vancouver Island (British Columbia) to the southern Coast Ranges, north Channel Islands, and central Sierra Nevada in California. It often is confused with E. merita in the western, coastal states where both are found, though populations are rarely if ever sympatric, the former apparently thriving at lower elevations than the latter.

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

Source FNA vol. 20, p. 368. FNA vol. 20, p. 369.
Parent taxa Asteraceae > tribe Astereae > Eurybia 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
E. avita, E. chlorolepis, E. compacta, E. conspicua, E. divaricata, E. eryngiifolia, E. furcata, E. hemispherica, E. integrifolia, E. jonesiae, E. macrophylla, E. merita, E. mirabilis, E. paludosa, E. radula, E. saxicastelli, E. schreberi, E. sibirica, E. spectabilis, E. spinulosa, E. surculosa, E. ×herveyi
Synonyms Aster conspicuus Aster radulinus, Aster eliasii, Weberaster radulinus
Name authority (Lindley) G. L. Nesom: Phytologia 77: 259. (1995) (A. Gray) G. L. Nesom: Phytologia 77: 261. (1995)
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