Symphyotrichum foliaceum |
Symphyotrichum oblongifolium |
|||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
alpine leafybract aster, Canby's leafybract aster, Cusick's American aster, Cusick's aster, Henderson's aster, Kootenai aster, leafy aster, leafy or leafy-bract or alpine leafybract aster, leafy-bract aster, Parry's aster |
aromatic aster, oblong-leaf aster |
|||||||||||||
Habit | Perennials 10–60 cm, colonial; long-rhizomatous. | Perennials, 10–80(–100) cm, colonial; with thick, woody, short-branched caudices, sometimes ± cormoid, and thin, woody rhizomes. | ||||||||||||
Stems | 1–5+, ascending to erect, glabrous or sparsely puberulent. |
1–10+, ascending to erect or decumbent, light to dark brown, proximally glabrous, distally hispiduloso-hirsute or hirtellous, stipitate-glandular. |
||||||||||||
Leaves | thin, margins entire or sometimes serrate, apices acute to obtuse, faces usually glabrous, sometimes sparsely hairy; basal usually persistent, petiolate to subpetiolate, blades broadly elliptic to obovate, 30–200 × 8–25(–30) mm, bases attenuate, margins entire or sometimes serrate, apices acute to obtuse; proximal cauline sessile or subpetiolate, blades elliptic to obovate, 35–120 × 8–25 mm, bases attenuate or cuneate to rounded, sometimes ± clasping, apices acute; distal sessile, reduced distally, bases cuneate, apices acute. |
(yellowish to dark green) thin, margins entire; basal sometimes persistent, sessile, blades (3-nerved) oblanceolate to spatulate, 20–50(–70) × 5–15 mm, margins entire (remotely serrate), coarsely ciliate, apices rounded, short-mucronate, faces usually hirsute, rarely glabrous, often also stipitate-glandular; proximal cauline sessile (often with clusters of smaller leaves in axils), blades oblong or linear-lanceolate, (15–)30–100 × 5–15(–20) mm, bases rounded or slightly clasping, margins scabrellous, apices acute to obtuse, spinulose-mucronate, abaxial faces scabrous, often stipitate-glandular, adaxial hirsute; distal sessile, blades lanceolate to oblong, 20–80 × 2–10(–20) mm, greatly reduced distally, bases cuneate to subclasping, margins ciliate, stipitate-glandular, apices acute to obtuse, white-mucronate, faces moderately strigose, moderately to densely stipitate-glandular. |
||||||||||||
Peduncles | sparsely hairy, bracts 0–3, lanceolate. |
0.5–5 cm, hispid, stipitate-glandular, bracts dense, spreading or squarrose (rarely ascending), linear to narrowly oblong, 3–8 mm, grading into phyllaries, spinulose, short-strigose. |
||||||||||||
Involucres | campanulate, 6–16(–20) mm. |
campanulate, (5–)7–9 mm. |
||||||||||||
Ray florets | 15–60; corollas violet to purple, laminae 8–18(–20) × 1–2 mm. |
(10–)25–35; corollas light to dark rose-purple, lavender to deep purple, laminae 9–13(–15) × 1–2 mm. |
||||||||||||
Disc florets | 50–150; corollas yellow, 4–7 mm, lobes triangular, 0.4–1 mm. |
(25–)30–40(–50); corollas yellow turning brown or reddish purple, 4.5–5.5(–6) mm, tubes 1/2 the funnelform to nearly tubular throats, lobes triangular, 0.4–0.7 mm. |
||||||||||||
Phyllaries | in 4–6 series, oblanceolate or oblong (outer) to lanceolate or linear (inner), subequal or unequal (outer exceeding inner), bases outer foliaceous, inner indurate, margins entire, green zones elliptic to lanceolate, apices acute to rounded, faces glabrous or puberulent. |
in 4–5(–6) series, outer oblanceolate, mid linear-lanceolate, inner linear, usually unequal, sometimes subequal, bases ± indurate, margins hyaline, scarious, erose, ciliate or ciliolate and/or stipitate-glandular, green zones often broadly foliaceous (outer), green in distal 1/3–1/2 (mid), apices spreading to reflexed (outer), acute, mid long-acuminate, faces moderately hairy, stipitate-glandular. |
||||||||||||
Heads | borne singly or in paniculiform arrays, branches ascending, up to 25 cm. |
in ample, corymbiform to diffusely paniculiform arrays, branches initially patent, then ascending (often from proximal nodes). |
||||||||||||
Cypselae | brown, cylindric to obovoid, not compressed, 2.5–4 mm, 3–4-nerved, faces hairy; pappi white to tawny, 5–8 mm. |
dull purple or brown (nerves stramineous), obovoid, slightly falcate, not compressed, 2–2.5 mm, 7–10-nerved, faces sparsely strigillose or sericeous; pappi tawny (barb tips sometimes rose-tinged), 3.5–6 mm. |
||||||||||||
2n | = 10, 20. |
|||||||||||||
Symphyotrichum foliaceum |
Symphyotrichum oblongifolium |
|||||||||||||
Phenology | Flowering Aug–Nov. | |||||||||||||
Habitat | Open, dry, rocky, sandy, gravelly, or shaly soils, limestone glades and outcrops, sandstone or calcareous cliffs, open-wooded bluffs, prairies, pastures, dunes, roadsides | |||||||||||||
Elevation | 100–1500+ m (300–4900+ ft) | |||||||||||||
Distribution |
AK; AZ; CA; CO; ID; MT; NM; NV; OR; UT; WA; WY; AB; BC
|
AL; AR; CO; IA; IL; IN; KS; KY; MD; MN; MO; MS; MT; NC; ND; NE; NM; OH; OK; PA; SD; TN; TX; VA; WI; WV; WY; Mexico (Coahuila)
|
||||||||||||
Discussion | Varieties 4 (4 in the flora). Symphyotrichum foliaceum is extremely variable and is widespread in western montane coniferous forests and subalpine meadows. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Symphyotrichum oblongifolium varies greatly in leaf size and shape, the extremes of which have been the bases for varieties that are not distinct but merely represent the ends of a continuum of variation. The species is similar to S. ×amethystinum (S. ericoides × S. novae-angliae), but the latter has more hairy stems and leaves, and eglandular phyllaries. A leafy cultivar of the species is offered in the horticulture trade. A form with pink rays, merely a population variation, has been recognized as distinct from the more purple typical form: Aster oblongifolius forma roseoligulatus Shinners. Symphyotrichum batesii (Rydberg) G. L. Nesom (syn. Aster batesii Rydberg), reported from Nebraska, is the intersectional hybrid of this species with S. ericoides var. ericoides. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
||||||||||||
Key |
|
|||||||||||||
Source | FNA vol. 20, p. 532. | FNA vol. 20, p. 486. | ||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Asteraceae > tribe Astereae > Symphyotrichum > subg. Symphyotrichum > sect. Occidentales | Asteraceae > tribe Astereae > Symphyotrichum > subg. Virgulus | ||||||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||||||
Synonyms | Aster foliaceus | Aster oblongifolius, Virgulus oblongifolius | ||||||||||||
Name authority | (Lindley ex de Candolle) G. L. Nesom: Phytologia 77: 282. (1995) | (Nuttall) G. L. Nesom: Phytologia 77: 287. (1995) | ||||||||||||
Web links |
|