Eurybia macrophylla
Eurybia avita
aster à grandes feuilles, bigleaf aster, large-leaf wood-aster
Alexander's Rock aster
1, erect, simple, straight to ± flexuous, glabrous or sparsely villous, stipitate-glandular, more densely so distally (at least in arrays).
1–5+, erect to ascending, simple, strict, slender, stiff, proximally glabrous or glabrate, distally hirtello-puberulent.
basal and cauline, thick, firm, margins coarsely serrate (proximal) to crenate-serrate or entire (distal), scabrous, teeth mucronate, apices acuminate, sharply mucronate, abaxial faces glabrescent to sparsely strigose, veins stipitate-glandular, adaxial sparsely strigose, ± densely villous on veins, short-stipitate-glandular (more so on distal);
basal withering by flowering, petioles (25–)80–170 mm, ± winged, bases sheathing, ciliate, blades broadly ovate, (45–)110–250 × (25–)55–150 mm, bases deeply cordate (sinuses curved), sometimes slightly oblique;
cauline petiolate (3–110 mm), gradually more broadly winged and sometimes ± auriculate distally, ± clasping, ciliate, to subpetiolate or sessile, blades broadly ovate to ovate, 22–104 × 9–80 mm, gradually reduced distally, bases cordate to rounded or attenuate to cuneate;
distal (arrays) sessile, blades ovate or broadly lanceolate or elliptic to obovate or oblanceolate, 9–38 × 3–13 mm, abruptly reduced distally, bases ± clasping to rounded or cuneate (arrays), margins crenate-serrate or entire.
basal and cauline, firm, blades (1-nerved) linear to lance-linear or oblong-linear (grasslike), 25–140+ × 2–5 mm, ± coriaceous, bases sheathing, margins entire to remotely serrulate-spinose, indurate, remotely scabrous, spines thickened, apices acute, revolute, faces glabrous;
basal and proximal cauline often withering by flowering, bases marcescent, ± long-petiolate;
mid and distal progressively sessile and reduced.
firm, 0–4 cm, densely stipitate-glandular;
bracts 0–2, ovate-lanceolate, ± stipitate-glandular.
densely hirtellous;
bracts 1–2, usually immediately subtending heads.
broadly campanulate to campanulate, (6–)7–11 mm, shorter than pappi.
cylindro-campanulate, 7–9 mm, shorter than pappi.
9–20;
corollas ± deep lavender or violet to occasionally white, (7–)11–15 × 1.4–2.4 mm.
8–20;
corollas bluish white to lavender or deep violet, 5–10 × 1–1.7 mm.
20–40;
corollas cream-color or light yellow, becoming purple, 6–7.5 mm, slightly ampliate, tubes (ca. 4 mm) longer than funnelform throats (ca 1.2 mm), lobes reflexed, lanceolate, 1–1.6 mm.
15–45;
corollas yellow, 5.5–7 mm, barely ampliate, tubes shorter than narrowly funnelform throats, lobes erect, triangular, 0.6–0.7 mm.
32–35 in 5–6 series, appressed, often purple-tinged, usually obovate to oblong, seldom ovate (outer) to oblanceolate or linear-lanceolate (inner) (innermost to 7 mm), strongly unequal, bases indurate, keeled or rounded adaxially, dark green zones wide, 1/3–1/2 distal portion (rarely to base in outer) to less pronounced along midveins or none (inner), margins hyaline or reddish, scarious, ± erose, densely villoso-ciliate apically, apices obtuse to rounded or acute (inner), adaxial faces ± villous, ± stipitate-glandular.
30–55+ in 4–5 series, unequal, chartaceous, bases indurate, margins narrowly hyaline, scabrous, erose, fimbriate, apices appressed or reflexed, acute, sometimes acuminate (some outer), mucronate, marginally thickened, faces glabrous;
outer lance-oblong, rounded, apical zones dark green, flat;
inner linear-oblong, apical zones pale green, restricted to broadly acute tips.
(2–)8–90+ in flat-topped, corymbiform arrays.
3–15+ in narrow, flat-topped corymbiform arrays.
brown, fusiform or cylindro-obconic, compressed, 2.6–4.5 mm, ribs 7–12 (golden brown), faces glabrous or sparsely strigillose distally;
pappi of tawny to orangish (sometimes clavellate) bristles 5–7.5 mm, slightly longer than disc corollas.
tan, fusiform, ± compressed, ca. 5 mm, ribs 7–10(–12) (stramineous, broad), strigillose;
pappi of cinnamon to sordid bristles 5.5–6 mm, equaling disc corollas.
= 72.
= 18.
Eurybia macrophylla
Eurybia avita
Eurybia macrophylla, a species of the northeastern deciduous or mixed forest, extends north into the southern boreal forest of Ontario-Quebec, and south along the Blue Ridges into northern Georgia. It becomes rare at the western edge of its range (Manitoba, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri). The plant has been reported from Mississippi but no voucher was seen.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Of conservation concern.
Eurybia avita is known from Stone Mountain (the type location, where it is now extirpated according to R. Kral 1983, vol. 2) and granite flatrocks in Georgia, and from Pickens County in South Carolina, where it is imperiled; it is presumed extirpated from North Carolina (www.natureserve.org). Kral mapped the species; he underlined its similarities to both E. surculosa and E. paludosa and the need for further studies of its relationships.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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