Symphyotrichum foliaceum |
Symphyotrichum priceae |
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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 |
lavender Oldfield aster, Price's or lavender Oldfield aster |
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Habit | Perennials 10–60 cm, colonial; long-rhizomatous. | Perennials, 30–100 cm, cespitose; with short, branched caudices. | ||||||||||||
Stems | 1–5+, ascending to erect, glabrous or sparsely puberulent. |
1–3+, decumbent to ascending (curved or straight, sometimes stout, green to reddish brown), glabrous. |
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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. |
(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 | sparsely hairy, bracts 0–3, lanceolate. |
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, 6–16(–20) mm. |
cylindric, (4.5–)5.5–7.1(–8.5) mm. |
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Ray florets | 15–60; corollas violet to purple, laminae 8–18(–20) × 1–2 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 | 50–150; corollas yellow, 4–7 mm, lobes triangular, 0.4–1 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 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 4–6 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 | borne singly or in paniculiform arrays, branches ascending, up to 25 cm. |
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 | brown, cylindric to obovoid, not compressed, 2.5–4 mm, 3–4-nerved, faces hairy; pappi white to tawny, 5–8 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 foliaceum |
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 |
AK; AZ; CA; CO; ID; MT; NM; NV; OR; UT; WA; WY; AB; BC
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AL; GA; KY; TN |
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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 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. 532. | FNA vol. 20, p. 513. | ||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Asteraceae > tribe Astereae > Symphyotrichum > subg. Symphyotrichum > sect. Occidentales | Asteraceae > tribe Astereae > Symphyotrichum > subg. Symphyotrichum > sect. Symphyotrichum | ||||||||||||
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Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||||||
Synonyms | Aster foliaceus | Aster priceae, Aster kentuckiensis, Aster pilosus var. priceae | ||||||||||||
Name authority | (Lindley ex de Candolle) G. L. Nesom: Phytologia 77: 282. (1995) | (Britton) G. L. Nesom: Phytologia 77: 290. (1995) | ||||||||||||
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