Symphyotrichum concolor |
Symphyotrichum priceae |
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eastern silver American-aster, eastern silver aster, eastern silvery aster |
lavender Oldfield aster, Price's or lavender Oldfield aster |
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Habit | Perennials, 30–80 cm, cespitose; with cormoid, woody caudices. | Perennials, 30–100 cm, cespitose; with short, branched caudices. | ||||
Stems | 1–10+, ascending to erect (light to dark brown), glabrous or densely canescent distally. |
1–3+, decumbent to ascending (curved or straight, sometimes stout, green to reddish brown), glabrous. |
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Leaves | (green to graysih) soft to firm; basal withering by flowering, sessile, blades (1–3-nerved) elliptic-lanceolate, 10–43 × 5–15 mm, bases attenuate, margins usually entire, rarely remotely serrate, piloso-ciliate, apices acute to obtuse, faces silvery silky-pilose to sparsely pilose; proximal cauline withering by flowering, sessile, blades oblanceolate, 20–35 × 5–15 mm, bases rounded, subclasping, margins entire, scabrous to silky-pilose, apices acute to obtuse, cuspidate mucronate, faces ± densely silky; distal sessile, blades usually oblong to lanceolate, rarely ovate, 9–15 × 1.8–5 mm, reduced distally, bases cuneate, margins entire, apices acute, mucronate, faces ± densely silky or sparsely strigose, sometimes glabrate (var. devestitum). |
(dark green to bluish green) thin, apices acute to acuminate, mucronate, faces glabrate or glabrous; basal withering by flowering (vernal rosettes developed at flowering), petiolate or sessile (petioles winged, sheathing, ciliate), blades oblanceolate to obovate, 10–70 × 3–5 mm, bases cuneate to attenuate, margins entire or rarely sparsely serrate distally, apices obtuse to rounded, cuspidate; proximal cauline usually withering by flowering, petiolate or sessile (petioles narrowly winged, bases ± clasping), blades oblanceolate to linear-oblanceolate, 70–105 × 2–4 cm, bases attenuate to cuneate, or ± auriculate, ± clasping; distal sessile, blades linear-lanceolate to narrowly subulate, 5–65 × 1–4 mm, progressively reduced distally, bases subauriculate, ± clasping, margins entire, with marginal cilia proximally, faces glabrous; reduced array leaves often in fascicles along branches, markedly 3-nerved. |
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Peduncles | densely hairy, bracts becoming linear, grading into phyllaries. |
0.4–2 cm, mostly borne on secondary branches, glabrous, bracts 3–6, linear to subulate, stiff, distalmost sometimes surpassing involucres, glabrous. |
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Involucres | campanulate to narrowly campanulate, 5–7 mm. |
cylindric, (4.5–)5.5–7.1(–8.5) mm. |
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Ray florets | 8–12; corollas rose-purple, rarely white, laminae 4–9 × 1–1.5 mm. |
(13–)20–28(–34); corollas usually blue-violet, rarely white, laminae (7–)9–15(–19) × 0.6–2.1 mm. |
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Disc florets | (9–)11–17(–21); corollas pink turning purple, 4.5–6 mm, tubes shorter than narrowly funnelform throats (thinly puberulent), lobes triangular, 0.4–0.7 mm. |
(28–)33–51(–68); corollas yellow turning brown, 3.4–4.6(–5.5) mm, tubes shorter than funnelform throats, lobes lanceolate, 0.5–1 mm. |
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Phyllaries | in 3–5 series, appressed, lanceolate-oblong, strongly unequal, bases (tan) ± indurate, margins scarious proximally, green distally, green zones restricted to apex, obscured by hair, apices usually acute, sometimes acuminate, usually mucronate, sometimes subspinulose, faces ± densely silky. |
in 4–6 series, oblong-lanceolate to -oblanceolate to sometimes linear (innermost), unequal to subequal, bases indurate 1/4–2/3, margins narrowly scarious, erose, hyaline, sometimes sparsely ciliolate, green zones diamond-shaped to lanceolate, apices acute to long-acuminate, involute, spreading, mucronate to apiculate, faces glabrous. |
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Heads | in narrow, paniculiform (virgate) arrays (1–3(–5) per branch). |
in leafy, paniculiform to racemiform arrays, branches nearly divaricate to ascending, straight, sometimes secund, secondarily ramified, leafy with array leaves ± stiff, asscending to appressed. |
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Cypselae | obovoid, not compressed, 2.5–3.5 mm, 7–10-nerved, faces densely strigose; pappi tan, (3.5–)4–6 mm. |
tan to brown, obovoid, ± compressed, 1.5–2.1 mm, 4–5-nerved (thin), faces sparsely strigillose; pappi white, 3–5 mm. |
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2n | = 64. |
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Symphyotrichum concolor |
Symphyotrichum priceae |
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Phenology | Flowering Aug–Oct. | |||||
Habitat | Broken limestone pavements of cedar glades, limestone disturbed roadsides | |||||
Elevation | 200–400 m (700–1300 ft) | |||||
Distribution |
AL; DE; FL; GA; KY; LA; MA; MD; MS; NC; NJ; NY; RI; SC; TN; VA
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AL; GA; KY; TN |
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Discussion | Varieties 2 (2 in the flora). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Symphyotrichum priceae blooms earlier than S. pilosum var. pilosum. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 20, p. 492. | FNA vol. 20, p. 513. | ||||
Parent taxa | Asteraceae > tribe Astereae > Symphyotrichum > subg. Virgulus | Asteraceae > tribe Astereae > Symphyotrichum > subg. Symphyotrichum > sect. Symphyotrichum | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | Aster concolor, Lasallea concolor, Virgulus concolor | Aster priceae, Aster kentuckiensis, Aster pilosus var. priceae | ||||
Name authority | (Linnaeus) G. L. Nesom: Phytologia 77: 278. (1995) | (Britton) G. L. Nesom: Phytologia 77: 290. (1995) | ||||
Web links |