Symphyotrichum ericoides
Symphyotrichum laurentianum
aster éricoïde, heath American-aster, heath-leaf aster, little gray aster, rayless alkali aster, tuft white prairie aster, white heath aster
aster du golfe du saint-laurent, Gulf Of St. Lawrence aster
1–3+, ascending to erect (grayish brown to brown), sparsely to densely hispido-strigose, sometimes glabrescent proximally.
1, decumbent to erect (straight), glabrous.
usually all except rameal withered by flowering, (light grayish green) firm apices ± white-spine-tipped (often with clusters of smaller leaves in axils);
basal sessile, blades (3-nerved) oblanceolate to oblong or spatulate, 10–50 × 10–25 mm, bases attenuate, margins usually entire, rarely remotely serrate, scabrous, apices rounded to obtuse, faces usually sparsely hairy, often glabrous;
proximal cauline sessile, blades (1- or 3-nerved) linear to lanceolate or oblong, 10–40(–60) × 1.5–4(–7) mm, reduced distally, bases cuneate, coarsely ciliate, margins entire, coarsely ciliate, apices acute or obtuse, faces moderately to densely strigose or hirsute;
distal sessile, blades oblong-ovate, 10–40 × 1.5–3.5 mm, abruptly reduced distally, bases cuneate, margins entire, apices acute, faces moderately to densely strigose.
± fleshy, margins entire, eciliate, apices obtuse, faces glabrous;
basal deciduous at bolting, petiolate, blades oblanceolate 44–50 × 5–7 mm [cult.], bases attenuate;
proximal cauline and some distal withering by flowering;
cauline sessile, blades linear-lanceolate to spatulate, 15–55 × 1–4 mm, reduced distally, bases cuneate;
distal sessile, blades linear-lanceolate to spatulate.
0.5–1(–2) cm or subsessile, densely hairy, bracts dense, linear to narrowly lanceolate, usually reflexed, sometime appressed to ascending, 1.5–5(–6) mm, densely hairy, grading into phyllaries.
glabrous, bracts linear.
cylindric to campanulate, 2.5–4.5(–5) mm.
campanulate, 5–8+mm.
(8–)10–18(–20);
corollas usually white, rarely pink or bluish, laminae 6–12(–20) × 0.7–1.2 mm.
0.
14–47+ in 2–3+ series;
laminae 0 (corolla tubes 2–2.4 mm, shorter than style branches).
6–12(–20);
corollas yellow becoming brown, 2.5–4 mm, throats narrowly funnelform, lobes triangular, 0.5–0.6 mm, glabrous.
5–8+;
corollas yellow, 3.1–3.9 mm, lobes deltate to triangular, 0.2–0.3 mm.
in 3–4 series, oblanceolate to ± spatulate, unequal, firm, bases (whitish to tan) ± indurate in proximal 1/2–2/3, margins hyaline, scabrous proximally, green zones diamond-shaped, in distal 1/2, apices spine-tipped, (outer) spreading to reflexed or squarrose, faces (outer) sparsely to densely hispid, scabroso-hirsute adaxially, (inner) glabrous.
in 3–4 series, lanceolate, subequal, bases scarious, margins eciliate, green zones foliaceous (outer), apices obtuse, faces glabrous.
(1–200+) in paniculiform arrays, branches fastigiate or arrays often pyramidal, racemiform, secund, crowded.
(disciform) in ± densely paniculiform arrays.
deep purple turning brown, obovoid to oblong-obovoid, ± falcate, not compressed, 1.2–2 × 0.4–0.6 mm, 7–9-nerved (faint), faces sericeous or densely strigillose;
pappi whitish, 3–4 mm.
purple, obovoid, ± compressed, 2.8–2.9 mm, 2–4-nerved, faces strigillose;
pappi white to yellowish white, 4.8–5.2 mm.
= 14.
Symphyotrichum ericoides
Symphyotrichum laurentianum
Varieties 2 (2 in the flora).
Symphyotrichum ericoides resembles S. pilosum var. pilosum, which has larger heads, longer rays, and phyllaries that are not spine-tipped, though the revolute margins can make them appear so. Two subspecies and four weakly separated varieties of S. ericoides were recognized by A. G. Jones (1978). Tetraploids of var. ericoides on the eastern prairies can be difficult to distinguish from S. falcatum. A number of aster cultivars are sold under the name “Aster ericoides.” These are all derived from European garden plants and are either cultivars of S. dumosum, S. lateriflorum, S. pilosum, or S. racemosum, or hybrids involving one of those species and another taxon. The misapplication of the epithet ericoides dates back to the nineteenth century and has persisted in the horticultural literature.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Of conservation concern.
Symphyotrichum laurentianum is known only from the southern shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Plants colonial, rhizomatous, not cormoid; involucres cylindro-campanulate when fresh | var. ericoides |
1. Plants cespitose, with cormoid caudices, not strongly rhizomatous; involucres broadly campanulate when fresh | var. pansum |
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