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

Anticosti American-aster, Anticosti aster, Anticosti Island aster, aster d'Anticosti

Habit Perennials, 10–90 cm, colonial; long-rhizomatous.
Stems

1, erect (straight, often reddish), glabrous.

Leaves

coriaceous, margins remotely serrulate or entire, slightly revolute, scabrous, apices mucronulate, faces glabrous;

basal withering by flowering, long-petiolate (petioles narrowly winged, bases sheathing), blades lanceolate to oblanceolate, ca. 55+ × 3+ mm, bases slightly attenuate, apices acute;

proximal cauline mostly withering by flowering, petiolate (petioles narrowly winged, sheathing), blades lanceolate or oblanceolate to linear-lanceolate or -oblanceolate, arcuate, 90–160 × 5–18 mm, bases cuneate to slightly attenuate, margins entire or serrulate, apices acute;

distal sessile, blades linear to linear-lanceolate, 8–50 × 1.5–5 mm, progressively reduced distally, more strongly so in arrays, bases cuneate to rounded, sometimes slightly clasping, apices acute to acuminate.

Peduncles

0.8–5.7 cm, slender, sparsely ot moderately pilosulous, bracts 3–5, linear-lanceolate, often crowded proximal to and surpassing heads.

Involucres

campanulate, 6–10 mm.

Ray florets

25–44;

corollas usually pale purple or lilac, sometimes white, laminae 9.5–20 × 0.7–1.4 mm.

Disc florets

29–52;

corollas yellow becoming reddish purple, 5–6 mm, tubes slightly shorter than funnelform throats, lobes lanceolate, 0.6–0.7 mm.

Phyllaries

in 2–3 series, oblong-oblanceolate or -spatulate (outer) or oblong-lanceolate to linear-lanceolate or linear (inner), ± unequal, bases indurate 1/3–3/4, margins hyaline, scarious, erose distally, sparsely ciliolate distally, green zones lanceolate, outer often foliaceous distally, apices acute to long-acuminate, ± spreading, faces glabrous.

Heads

in elongate, loosely racemiform arrays, branches ascending, heads single at ends of primary branches or long pedicels.

Cypselae

reddish tan, obovoid, compressed, 1.5–2.8 mm, 4–5-nerved, faces strigillose;

pappi yellowish, 7–8 mm.

2n

= 80.

Symphyotrichum anticostense

Phenology Flowering Aug–Sep.
Habitat Calcareous, gravelly shores of rivers, lakeshore limestone pavements
Elevation 0–100 m (0–300 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
ME; NB; QC
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Of conservation concern.

Symphyotrichum anticostense is known from disjunct areas: western Lake St. John, southern Anticosti Island, southern streams of the Gaspé Peninsula (Quebec), Restigouche River (Quebec–New Brunswick), and St. John (New Brunswick) and Aroostook (Maine; A. Haines 2000) rivers. It is an allopolyploid derivative of the cross between the calcareous fen species S. boreale and the widespread shore species S. novi-belgii (J. Labrecque and L. Brouillet 1990). It hybridizes with S. novi-belgii.

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

Source FNA vol. 20, p. 529.
Parent taxa Asteraceae > tribe Astereae > Symphyotrichum > subg. Symphyotrichum > sect. Symphyotrichum
Sibling taxa
S. adnatum, S. anomalum, S. ascendens, S. boreale, S. bracteolatum, S. campestre, S. chapmanii, S. chilense, S. ciliatum, S. ciliolatum, S. concolor, S. cordifolium, S. cusickii, S. defoliatum, S. depauperatum, S. drummondii, S. dumosum, S. elliottii, S. ericoides, S. eulae, S. falcatum, S. fendleri, S. firmum, S. foliaceum, S. fontinale, S. frondosum, S. georgianum, S. grandiflorum, S. greatae, S. hallii, S. hendersonii, S. jessicae, S. laeve, S. lanceolatum, S. lateriflorum, S. laurentianum, S. lentum, S. molle, S. nahanniense, S. novae-angliae, S. novi-belgii, S. oblongifolium, S. ontarionis, S. oolentangiense, S. parviceps, S. patens, S. phlogifolium, S. pilosum, S. plumosum, S. porteri, S. potosinum, S. praealtum, S. pratense, S. prenanthoides, S. priceae, S. puniceum, S. pygmaeum, S. racemosum, S. retroflexum, S. rhiannon, S. robynsianum, S. sericeum, S. shortii, S. simmondsii, S. spathulatum, S. subspicatum, S. subulatum, S. tenuifolium, S. tradescantii, S. turbinellum, S. undulatum, S. urophyllum, S. walteri, S. welshii, S. yukonense, S. ×amethystinum
Synonyms Aster anticostensis, Aster gaspensis, Aster hesperius var. gaspensis
Name authority (Fernald) G. L. Nesom: Phytologia 77: 275. (1995)
Web links