The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

aster à feuilles de linaires, flax-leaf ankle-aster, flax-leaf stiff-aster, flaxleaf aster, flaxleaf whitetop or aster

Rocky Mountain ankle-aster, Rocky Mountain aster, Rocky Mountain ionactis

Habit Plants 10–50(–70) cm (commonly cespitose; rhizomes compact, crownlike, woody, fibrous-rooted). Plants 12–30 cm (sometimes weakly cespitose, caudices multicipital or with relatively short branches; rhizomes fibrous-rooted, thickened, becoming woody).
Stems

proximally herbaceous or slightly woody, eglandular.

proximally herbaceous or slightly woody, eglandular.

Leaves

separated by evident internodes;

blades uniform, linear to narrowly oblong or oblanceolate, 12–40 mm, margins green, faces glabrous, eglandular.

proximal separated by evident internodes, spatulate, reduced in size distally;

mid and distal linear-lanceolate, 15–25(–30) mm, margins green, faces hispidulous.

Involucres

6–9 mm.

8–13 mm.

Disc florets

bisexual, fertile;

corollas (4.5–)5–7 mm.

bisexual, fertile;

corollas 7.5–8.5 mm.

Heads

usually in loose, corymbiform arrays, sometimes borne singly.

borne singly.

Cypselae

(2.5–)3.5–4 mm, eglandular.

5–6 mm, faces sessile- to stipitate-glandular.

2n

= 18.

Ionactis linariifolia

Ionactis stenomeres

Phenology Flowering (Jun–)Sep–Nov. Flowering Jun–Sep.
Habitat Sandy habitats, often seeps or other moist sites, commonly in longleaf pine communities along Gulf Coast, or inland sites of rocky hills, ridges, bluffs, sometimes in clay, in oak pine woods, sandy cracks and ledges of acid rocks in stream falls or rapids, open jackpine stands on sand Dry slopes, grassy ridges, and openings
Elevation 5–800(–900) m (0–2600(–3000) ft) 1700–2200 m (5600–7200 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AL; AR; CT; DC; DE; FL; GA; IA; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MA; MD; ME; MO; MS; NC; NH; NJ; NY; OH; OK; PA; RI; SC; TN; TX; VA; VT; WI; WV; NB; QC
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
ID; MT; WA; BC
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Ionactis linariifolia was noted by M. L. Fernald (1950) to occur in “s. Minn.”; G. B. Ownbey and T. Morley (1991) did not include it for Minnesota.

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

Source FNA vol. 20, p. 83. FNA vol. 20, p. 84.
Parent taxa Asteraceae > tribe Astereae > Ionactis Asteraceae > tribe Astereae > Ionactis
Sibling taxa
I. alpina, I. caelestis, I. elegans, I. stenomeres
I. alpina, I. caelestis, I. elegans, I. linariifolia
Synonyms Aster linariifolius, Aster linariifolius var. victorinii Aster stenomeres
Name authority (Linnaeus) Greene: Pittonia 3: 245. (1897) (A. Gray) Greene: Pittonia 3: 246. (1897)
Web links