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aster à longues feuilles, longleaf aster, Robyns' aster

Habit Perennials, 10–80 cm, colonial; long-rhizomatous.
Stems

1, erect (± flexuous, often reddish), glabrous, hairy in lines distally.

Leaves

stiff, margins sparsely serrulate or entire, ± revolute, scabrous, apices acute to acuminate, mucronulate, faces glabrous, sometimes midveins hairy;

basal withering by flowering, long-petiolate, petioles narrowly winged, bases sheathing, blades lanceolate, ca. 20 × 3–5 mm, slightly attenuate to narrowly cuneate;

proximal cauline withering by flowering, sessile or subpetiolate, blades linear-lanceolate to -oblanceolate, 100–200 × 4–8 mm, bases cuneate to attenuate, clasping;

distal sessile, blades linear-lanceolate to linear, 10–110 × 1–7 mm, progressively reduced distally, bases cuneate to rounded, slightly clasping or not, margins entire.

Peduncles

glabrous or ± densely pilose in lines, bracts 1–4, linear, sometimes inrolled distally, clasping, ciliate, distal 1–2 often subtending and surpassing involucres.

Involucres

campanulate, 5–8.5 mm.

Ray florets

20–35;

corollas dark blue-violet, seldom white, laminae 8–13 × 1–1.5 mm.

Disc florets

(18–)23–40;

corollas yellow, 4–6.5 mm, tubes shorter than funnelform throats, lobes lanceolate, 0.8–1 mm.

Phyllaries

in 3–4 series, oblong-lanceolate, subequal, bases indurate 1/3–3/4, margins scarious, erose, hyaline, ciliate proximally, sparsely ciliolate distally, green zones lanceolate to linear, sometimes outer ± foliaceous, apices acuminate to long-acuminate, often foliaceous, mucronate to apiculate, faces glabrous, eglandular.

Heads

in elongate, open, narrow, paniculiform or racemiform arrays, branches ascending, short, leafy, branch leaves smaller and reduced distally (heads 1–3 per branch).

Cypselae

tan, obovoid, compressed, ca. 2.2–2.4 mm, 5–6-nerved, faces sparsely strigillose;

pappi pinkish, 7–8 mm.

2n

= 64, 80.

Symphyotrichum robynsianum

Phenology Flowering Aug–Sep.
Habitat Wet or damp, open, sandy, gravelly, or rocky grounds, often calcareous, cracks in rocky stream or lake shores, limestone alvars, seasonally wet glades and swales, jackpine outwash plains
Elevation 10–400 m (0–1300 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
MI; MN; WI; MB; ON; QC
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[BONAP county map]
Discussion

The name Aster longifolius Lamarck has been misapplied to this taxon.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 20, p. 530.
Parent taxa Asteraceae > tribe Astereae > Symphyotrichum > subg. Symphyotrichum > sect. Symphyotrichum
Sibling taxa
S. adnatum, S. anomalum, S. anticostense, S. ascendens, S. boreale, S. bracteolatum, S. campestre, S. chapmanii, S. chilense, S. ciliatum, S. ciliolatum, S. concolor, S. cordifolium, S. cusickii, S. defoliatum, S. depauperatum, S. drummondii, S. dumosum, S. elliottii, S. ericoides, S. eulae, S. falcatum, S. fendleri, S. firmum, S. foliaceum, S. fontinale, S. frondosum, S. georgianum, S. grandiflorum, S. greatae, S. hallii, S. hendersonii, S. jessicae, S. laeve, S. lanceolatum, S. lateriflorum, S. laurentianum, S. lentum, S. molle, S. nahanniense, S. novae-angliae, S. novi-belgii, S. oblongifolium, S. ontarionis, S. oolentangiense, S. parviceps, S. patens, S. phlogifolium, S. pilosum, S. plumosum, S. porteri, S. potosinum, S. praealtum, S. pratense, S. prenanthoides, S. priceae, S. puniceum, S. pygmaeum, S. racemosum, S. retroflexum, S. rhiannon, S. sericeum, S. shortii, S. simmondsii, S. spathulatum, S. subspicatum, S. subulatum, S. tenuifolium, S. tradescantii, S. turbinellum, S. undulatum, S. urophyllum, S. walteri, S. welshii, S. yukonense, S. ×amethystinum
Synonyms Aster robynsianus
Name authority (J. Rousseau) Brouillet & Labrecque: Phytologia 82: 138. (1997)
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