Symphyotrichum foliaceum |
Symphyotrichum urophyllum |
|||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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 |
arrow-leaf American-aster, white arrowleaf aster, white arrowleaf or arrowleaf aster |
|||||||||||||
Habit | Perennials 10–60 cm, colonial; long-rhizomatous. | Perennials, 40–120(–200) cm, cespitose; short-rhizomatous or with stout, branched caudices. | ||||||||||||
Stems | 1–5+, ascending to erect, glabrous or sparsely puberulent. |
1–5+, erect (straight to slightly flexuous, brittle, sometimes stout), proximally glabrous or glabrate, distally sparsely pilose. |
||||||||||||
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. |
thin, margins usually shallowly, sometimes deeply serrate, rarely entire (distal), (piloso- to strigoso-)ciliate to scabrous (distal), apices mucronate, abaxial faces moderately pilose, ± densely so on midveins, adaxial glabrate to sparsely pilose or scabrous; basal usually withering by flowering, sometimes persistent, long-petiolate (5–15 cm, petioles not or narrowly winged, sheathing), blades ovate to lance-ovate or lanceolate, 25–120 × 15–50 mm, bases usually shallowly, sometimes deeply, cordate to truncate or rounded, apices acute, sometimes rounded; proximal cauline sometimes deciduous at flowering, winged-petiolate (petioles distally usually broader-winged, clasping), blades ovate to lanceolate, 50–120 × 20–50 mm, gradually reduced distally, bases usually truncate or rounded to attenuate, sometimes cordate, apices usually acute or acuminate, sometimes nearly caudate; distal ± shortly winged-petiolate or sessile, blades lance-ovate or lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, 10–100 × 1–25 mm, reduced distally, bases attenuate to cuneate, margins entire to subentire, scabrous, apices acuminate to subcaudate. |
||||||||||||
Peduncles | sparsely hairy, bracts 0–3, lanceolate. |
0.3–2 cm, sparsely pilosulous to glabrate, bracts many, ascending, linear to subulate, 2–4 mm, grading into phyllaries. |
||||||||||||
Involucres | campanulate, 6–16(–20) mm. |
cylindric, (4–)4.5–6(–7) mm. |
||||||||||||
Ray florets | 15–60; corollas violet to purple, laminae 8–18(–20) × 1–2 mm. |
8–15(–20); corollas mostly white to pale pink or lilac or light blue, laminae 4.5–8(–10) × 0.8–1.5 mm. |
||||||||||||
Disc florets | 50–150; corollas yellow, 4–7 mm, lobes triangular, 0.4–1 mm. |
(8–)10–15(–20); corollas whitish to cream becoming pink, (3.5–)4–5 mm, tubes shorter than funnelform throats (with hairs), lobes lanceolate, 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 4–6 series, appressed or recurved-spreading, subulate (outer) to linear-lanceolate (inner), unequal, bases indurate 1/3–1/2+, margins scarious, hyaline, erose, sparsely ciliolate (mostly distally), green zones linear-lanceolate (outer) to linear (inner), apices long-acuminate to caudate, recurved, hyaline-mucronate to aristate, tips often purple, faces glabrous. |
||||||||||||
Heads | borne singly or in paniculiform arrays, branches ascending, up to 25 cm. |
(crowded) in dense, elongate, paniculiform arrays, branches stiffly ascending to erect (sometimes arched when long, peduncles then often secund), usually racemiform, sometimes paniculiform, leafy. |
||||||||||||
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 or dull purple (nerves stramineous), obovoid, ± compressed, 1.8–2.5 mm, 4–6-nerved, faces glabrous or glabrate or very sparsely strigillose; pappi white or rose-tinged, 3–4 mm. |
||||||||||||
2n | = 16. |
|||||||||||||
Symphyotrichum foliaceum |
Symphyotrichum urophyllum |
|||||||||||||
Phenology | Flowering Aug–Oct. | |||||||||||||
Habitat | Open, dry or mesic, sandy or loamy, sometimes rocky soils, limestone pavements, glades, ravines, open oak, sassafras, aspen, or pine woods, edges of woods, moist or dry, rocky bluffs, savanna, wooded banks, stabilized dunes, fields, roadsides, hedgerows, railroads | |||||||||||||
Elevation | 40–300+ m (100–1000+ ft) | |||||||||||||
Distribution |
AK; AZ; CA; CO; ID; MT; NM; NV; OR; UT; WA; WY; AB; BC
|
AL; AR; FL; GA; IA; IL; IN; KS; KY; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; MO; MS; NC; ND; NE; NJ; NY; OH; OK; PA; SC; TN; VA; VT; WI; WV; ON
|
||||||||||||
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.) |
The name Aster sagittifolius Wedemeyer ex Willdenow has been misapplied to this taxon; our interpretation of the type of this entity concords with that of A. G. Jones (1980), i.e., that it is conspecific with the type of Symphyotrichum cordifolium or a garden hybrid involving the latter. Aster sagittifolius forma hirtellus (Lindley) Shinners is not recognized here. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
||||||||||||
Key |
|
|||||||||||||
Source | FNA vol. 20, p. 532. | FNA vol. 20, p. 506. | ||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Asteraceae > tribe Astereae > Symphyotrichum > subg. Symphyotrichum > sect. Occidentales | Asteraceae > tribe Astereae > Symphyotrichum > subg. Symphyotrichum > sect. Symphyotrichum | ||||||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||||||
Synonyms | Aster foliaceus | Aster urophyllus, Aster sagittifolius var. dissitiflorus | ||||||||||||
Name authority | (Lindley ex de Candolle) G. L. Nesom: Phytologia 77: 282. (1995) | (Lindley ex de Candolle) G. L. Nesom: Phytologia 77: 294. (1995) | ||||||||||||
Web links |
|