Symphyotrichum lanceolatum |
Symphyotrichum fontinale |
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aster lancéolé, lance-leaf American-aster, lance-leaf aster, lance-leaf or panicle or white panicle aster, marsh aster, panicle aster, tall white aster, western willow aster, white-panicle aster |
Florida water aster |
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Habit | Perennials, 30–150(–200) cm, colonial; long-rhizomatous (rhizomes usually white, thick, contorted). | Perennials, 30–90 cm, colonial; long-rhizomatous. | ||||||||||||||||
Stems | 1, erect (straight, stout), glabrous or hairy. |
1–5+, erect (light to reddish brown, straight, sometimes stout), proximally moderately to densely hispidulo-strigillose, sometimes glabrescent, distally moderately to densely hispidulo-strigillose, sometimes sparsely stipitate-glandular. |
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Leaves | thin, scabrous, apices mucronate, abaxial faces glabrous (vein areoles indistinct, elongate), adaxial glabrous or sparsely scabrous (var. hesperium); basal withering by flowering, petiolate to subpetiolate (petioles winged, ciliate, bases dilated, sheathing), blades elliptic-oblanceolate or obovate to suborbiculate, 10–80 × 5–20 mm, cuneate to attenuate, margins crenate-serrate, apices acute to obtuse or rounded; proximal cauline withering by flowering, sessile or subsessile, blades lance-ovate or oblanceolate to linear-lanceolate, (40–)50–150 × (3–)10–20(–35) mm, progressively reduced distally, bases cuneate, ± decurrent, margins serrate, apices acute to acuminate; distal sessile, blades oblanceolate to linear, 30–100(–140) mm, only slightly reduced distally, bases cuneate, margins entire. |
(green to dark green) firm, margins entire, faces sparsely to moderately strigoso-scabrous, sometimes sparsely stipitate-glandular; basal absent at flowering, sessile, blades (3-nerved) oblanceolate to obovate, 25–40 × 12–15 mm, bases attenuate, margins entire (remotely serrate), scabrous, apices obtuse, short-mucronate; proximal cauline usually withering by flowering, sessile, blades obovate to oblanceolate, 25–80 × 5–18 mm, bases rounded or narrowly auriculate-clasping, margins distally shallowly serrate to subentire, scabrellous, apices spinulose-mucronate; distal sessile, blades lanceolate or oblanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, 5–50 × 2–10 mm, reduced distally and becoming bractlike (arrays), bases subclasping to (distally) rounded, margins scabrous, apices acute to white-mucronulate or -subspinulose, faces sometimes shiny, minutely gland-dotted. |
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Peduncles | 0.5–5 cm, ± pilose, bracts 1–3(–5), linear-oblanceolate to -lanceolate, foliaceous, ciliate. |
ascending (secund in well-developed arrays?), 0.3–4.5 cm, densely strigoso-hirsute, sometimes sparsely stipitate-glandular, bracts dense, spreading or reflexed (rarely ascending), narrowly oblong to linear-lanceolate, mostly ca. 3 × 1 mm, spinulose, sparsely to moderately strigilloso-scabrous, sometimes sparsely minutely stipitate-glandular, grading into phyllaries. |
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Involucres | campanulate to cylindric, 3–8 mm. |
cylindro-campanulate, 6–7.6 mm. |
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Ray florets | 16–50; corollas white to pinkish or pale blue-violet, laminae 3–10(–14) × 0.5–1.3 mm. |
15–30; corollas purplish-blue to lavender, laminae 7–13 × 0.8–2 mm. |
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Disc florets | (13–)20–40(–52); corollas yellow becoming purple, 2.8–5.8 mm, tubes shorter than funnelform throats, lobes sometimes ± spreading, triangular, 0.4–1.2 mm. |
19-25; corollas cream to pale yellow turning reddish purple, sometimes also brownish, 5.2–6 mm, tubes slightly shorter than funnelform throats, lobes lanceolate to triangular, 0.8–1.2 mm. |
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Phyllaries | in (3–)4–6 series, appressed or slightly spreading, linear-lanceolate to linear (innermost), sometimes slightly dilated distally, ± strongly unequal to subequal (var. hesperium), bases indurate 1/4–1/2, margins scarious, erose, hyaline, sparsely ciliolate, green zones lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, outer sometimes foliaceous (particularly var. hesperium), apices acute to acuminate (outer) or acuminate to caudate (inner), mostly mucronulate, abaxial faces glabrous, adaxial sparsely strigillose. |
in 4–5 series (appressed), oblong or oblanceolate (outer) to linear-oblanceolate (innermost), unequal, bases indurate, margins hyaline, scarious, erose, ciliate or ciliolate, and/or sometimes stipitate-glandular, often reddish distally, green zones elliptic (outer) to lanceolate, apices erect, acute to acuminate, mucronulate to apiculate (inner), often tinged red-purplish, faces glabrous or glabrate. |
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Heads | in ample or diffuse to narrow, elongate, leafy, paniculiform arrays, branches ± ascending, rarely secund, branch leaves often longer than pedicels. |
(4–400) in wide to narrow, paniculiform arrays, branches ascending to widely spreading (well-developed), densely small-leaved. |
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Cypselae | gray or tan, obovoid, ± compressed, 1.5–2 mm, 4–5-nerved, faces sparsely strigillose; pappi white to sordid or tawny, 5.5–6 mm. |
tan, obovoid-fusiform, slightly compressed, 1.9–2.3 mm, 4–5-nerved (golden bronze), faces sparsely strigillose to glabrescent; pappi sordid, 5–6.2 mm. |
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Symphyotrichum lanceolatum |
Symphyotrichum fontinale |
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Phenology | Flowering Nov–Dec. | |||||||||||||||||
Habitat | Moist, sometimes peaty soils, marshes, sandhills, hammocks, flood plains, ditch banks, rocky bluffs along streams | |||||||||||||||||
Elevation | 0–50 m (0–200 ft) | |||||||||||||||||
Distribution |
AL; AR; AZ; CA; CO; CT; DC; FL; GA; IA; ID; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; MO; MS; MT; NC; ND; NE; NH; NJ; NM; NV; NY; OH; OK; OR; PA; RI; SC; SD; TN; TX; UT; VA; VT; WA; WI; WV; WY; AB; BC; MB; NB; NF; NS; NT; ON; PE; QC; SK [Introduced in Europe]
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FL |
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Discussion | Varieties 5 (5 in the flora). Varieties of Symphyotrichum lanceolatum are sometimes grouped into two subspecies: subsp. hesperium (var. hesperium) and subsp. lanceolatum (the other four varieties). J. C. Semple and J. G. Chmielewski (1987) provided maps of the five taxa. The ranges of var. hesperium and var. lanceolatum overlap in the prairies and in the boreal zone from Alberta to the Clay Belt of northern Ontario. The ranges of the other three varieties do not overlap with that of var. hesperium, but they all overlap each other and with var. lanceolatum in the Midwest. The ecology and cytogeography of the species were summarized by Chmielewski and Semple (2001). The name Aster tradescantii has sometimes been misapplied to this species. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Of conservation concern. Symphyotrichum fontinale has been considered to be conspecific with S. patens or S. dumosum of subg. Symphyotrichum (A. Cronquist 1980). It fits well into sect. Grandiflori of subg. Virgulus. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 20. | FNA vol. 20, p. 487. | ||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Asteraceae > tribe Astereae > Symphyotrichum > subg. Symphyotrichum > sect. Symphyotrichum | Asteraceae > tribe Astereae > Symphyotrichum > subg. Virgulus | ||||||||||||||||
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Synonyms | Aster lanceolatus | Aster fontialis, Aster patens var. floridanus | ||||||||||||||||
Name authority | (Willdenow) G. L. Nesom: Phytologia 77: 284. (1995) | (Alexander) G. L. Nesom: Phytologia 77: 287. (1995) | ||||||||||||||||
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