Eurybia eryngiifolia |
Eurybia merita |
|
---|---|---|
coyote-thistle aster, thistleleaf aster |
arctic aster, arctic wood-aster, subalpine aster |
|
Habit | Plants 30–70 cm; in scattered individuals or small clumps, eglandular; rhizomes short, stout, or strong, woody caudices (roots fleshy). | Plants (2–)10–50 cm, clonal and clumped, eglandular; rhizomes creeping to ascending, long or short, scaly, woody with age. |
Stems | 1–3+, erect, coarse, villous. |
1–3+, usually ascending, sometimes decumbent, purplish, occasionally branched basally, sparsely villosulous, densely so distally. |
Leaves | strongly basal and cauline, coriaceous, margins indurate, entire to remotely spinose-serrate, remotely and obscurely scabridulous, spines indurate-margined or wholly indurate, finely parallel-veined with evident midnerves, apices acute, revolute, indurate, abaxial faces glabrous; basal and proximal cauline persistent (bases ± marcescent when leaves deciduous), petioles scarcely distinct, blades linear (grasslike), 70–350 × 3–8 mm, adaxial faces glabrous; cauline sessile, blades linear to lance-linear, 15–130 × 1.5–7 mm, progressively reduced and more spinose distally, adaxial faces progressively more villous distally. |
cauline (dark green abaxially, paler bluish green adaxially) firm, ± markedly veined, margins entire or serrulate, scabrous to strigoso-ciliate, teeth mucronate, slightly indurate, apices obtuse to acute, mucronate, abaxial faces glabrescent to sparsely villous along veins, adaxial glabrescent or sparsely (proximal) to ± densely (distal) villoso-strigose or strigose; proximalmost withering by flowering; proximal narrowly winged-petiolate or sessile, petiole bases sheathing, blades spatulate to obovate or oblanceolate, 10–43 × 2–16 mm, smaller than mid, bases attenuate to cuneate, subclasping (if sessile); mid sessile, blades lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate to oblanceolate, narrowly obovate, or spatulate, 20–80 × 4–35 mm, gradually reduced distally, bases rounded or subauriculate to widely attenuate or cuneate; distal (arrays) sessile, lanceolate to lance-ovate or elliptic to oblanceolate, 6–52 × 1–17 mm, rapidly reduced distally, margins often slightly purplish. |
Peduncles | ± densely villous, sometimes sparsely stipitate-glandular distally; bracts 0–7, appressed, lanceolate, bases ± indurate, margins spinose, adaxial faces villous. |
villosulous; bracts 0–3, lanceolate to spatulate, leaflike to distally phyllary-like (bases indurate, margins purplish), mostly foliaceous. |
Involucres | campanulo-hemispheric, 9–12 mm, slightly shorter than pappi. |
campanulate, 6–9 mm, shorter than pappi. |
Ray florets | 25–60; corollas white or pinkish, coiling, 10–20 × 1–2.1 mm. |
(10–)14–32; corollas purple to violet, 7–12(–15) × 1–1.7 mm. |
Disc florets | 115–260; corollas yellow, 5.5–7 mm, slightly ampliate, tubes shorter than tubular throats, lobes 0.75–1 mm, erect, lanceolate. |
30–60; corollas pale to cream-yellow, lobes pink-tinged, 5–7.6 mm, slightly ampliate, tubes equaling or slightly longer than funnelform throats, lobes erect, triangular, 0.6–1.3 mm. |
Phyllaries | 70–140 in 4–5 series, greenish, densely thick-nerved, lanceolate to linear (innermost), unequal, coriaceous, bases indurate and rounded (outer), margins entire, indurate or ± scarious, erose (inner), sometimes sparsely villoso-ciliate, ± densely stipitate-glandular, apices squarrose, green and often purplish-tinged, foliaceous, long-acuminate, adaxial faces villosulous, rarely also sparsely stipitate-glandular. |
30–65 in 4–5 series, often purplish, oblong or lance-oblong (outer) to lance-linear or linear (inner), unequal, membranous, bases indurate, rounded, dark green zones diffusely diamond-shaped to lanceolate in distal 1/3–2/3 (outer, seldom foliaceous) to 1/5 or none (inner), margins ± dark purple, narrowly scarious, erose, densely villoso-ciliate, apices appressed or sometimes loose and ± squarrose, acute to obtuse, often apiculate, faces usually villous, rarely glabrous. |
Heads | 1–11+, borne singly or in racemiform arrays, branches ascending to erect, stiff. |
(1–)5–50, usually in open to compact, corymbiform arrays, rarely borne singly. |
Cypselae | straw-colored, ellipsoid to obovoid, 2–3.5 mm, ribs 11–13 prominent, glabrous; pappi of (ca. 35) orangish tan (coarse, sometimes clavellate) bristles 7.8–8.2 mm, slightly longer than disc corollas. |
brownish, fusiform-obconic, slightly compressed, ca. 3.4 mm, ribs 8–10 (pale, strong), strigillose; pappi of cinnamon to yellowish bristles 5–6 mm, longer than disc corollas. |
2n | = 36. |
|
Eurybia eryngiifolia |
Eurybia merita |
|
Phenology | Flowering late spring–midsummer. | Flowering late summer. |
Habitat | Low pine flatwoods, pine savannas, bogs, often on wet sand, on southern coastal plains | Open, mesic or dry, rocky areas and woods, clearings, burnt areas, creek banks (rocky, sandy, or gravelly), mostly at subalpine level in mountains, lower in north, Douglas fir, lodgepole pine or spruce forests, subalpine meadows |
Elevation | 0–100 m (0–300 ft) | 100–3200 m (300–10500 ft) |
Distribution |
AL; FL; GA
|
CA; ID; MT; OR; SD; UT; WA; WY; BC
|
Discussion | Eurybia eryngiifolia is known from the Florida panhandle and adjacent areas of southern Georgia and Alabama. The species is of conservation concern in Alabama. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Eurybia merita occurs mainly from the Interior Mountains and Plateaus system to the Rocky Mountains, and is disjunct to the Black Hills of South Dakota. It reaches California in Siskyou County; the species has been overlooked in this state (e.g., G. A. Allen 1993) because of misidentification with E. radulina. S. L. Welsh et al. (1987) reported E. sibirica from the Uinta Mountains of Utah (Summit County), which A. Cronquist (1994) attributed to var. merita. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 20, p. 381. | FNA vol. 20, p. 370. |
Parent taxa | Asteraceae > tribe Astereae > Eurybia | Asteraceae > tribe Astereae > Eurybia |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Aster eryngiifolius, Heleastrum chapmanii, Prionopsis chapmanii | Aster meritus, Aster richardsonii var. meritus, Aster sibiricus var. meritus |
Name authority | (Torrey & A. Gray) G. L. Nesom: Phytologia 77: 259. (1995) | (A. Nelson) G. L. Nesom: Phytologia 77: 260. (1995) |
Web links |
|