Symphyotrichum subulatum |
Symphyotrichum ciliatum |
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annual saltmarsh American-aster, annual saltmarsh aster, annual saltmarsh or eastern annual saltmarsh aster, aster subulé, eastern annual saltmarsh aster, Southwestern annual saltmarsh aster |
alkali American aster, aster cilié, rayless alkali aster, rayless annual American-aster, rayless annual aster, rayless annual or rayless alkali aster |
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Habit | Annuals, (10–)30–150 cm; tap-rooted. | Annuals, 7–70+ cm. | ||||||||||||||||
Stems | 1, erect (often with purple or purplish brown areas), glabrous or glabrate, sometimes strigillose in leaf axils. |
1, ascending to erect (straight), bluish yellowish green, often red-tinged, ± succulent, glabrous. |
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Leaves | thin (green to dark green), margins often strigilloso-ciliolate, faces glabrous; basal withering by flowering, long-petiolate (petiole bases sheathing), sparsely ciliate, blades ovate to oblanceolate, 10–90 × 6–14 mm, bases attenuate to cuneate, rounded, margins entire or serrulate or crenulate, apices rounded, obtuse, or acute; proximal cauline withering by flowering, petiolate, subpetiolate, or sessile, blades narrowly lanceolate or subulate, 20–100(–200) × 1.5–10(–20) mm, bases attenuate, margins subentire, entire, or serrulate, apices acute to acuminate; distal sessile, blades narrowly lanceolate to subulate, 5–113 × 0.5–5.5 mm, apices acuminate. |
bluish (green) thin, sometimes ± fleshy, margins usually entire, sometimes serrulate, strigoso-ciliate to scabrous, midribs conspicuous, apices acute to short-acuminate, faces glabrous; basal withering by flowering, petiolate, blades spatulate, 15–205 × 1.5–9 mm, bases attenuate; proximal cauline usually withering by flowering (with clusters of smaller leaves in axils, often elongating into branches); cauline sessile, blades linear-oblanceolate, (10–)30–80(–150) × 1–4(–9) mm, gradually reduced distally, bases slightly dilated and clasping to rounded. |
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Peduncles | (0.2–)0.5–4 cm, bracts 4–8(–17). |
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Involucres | cylindric to turbinate, 5–7(–8.2) mm. |
narrowly campanulate, 5–7(–11) mm. |
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Ray florets | 16–30(–54) in 1–3 series; corollas white, pink, or lavender, laminae 1.3–7 × 0.2–1.3 mm. |
0. |
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Pistillate florets | 75–95+ in 4–5+ series; laminae 0 (corolla tubes ± 2 mm, shorter than style branches). |
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Disc florets | 4–10(–13); corollas yello, sometimes tinged with purple, 3.4–5.2 mm, throats narrowly funnelform, lobes ± spreading to erect, narrowly triangular, 0.3–0.7 mm, glabrous. |
± 14; corollas whitish turning pink, ± ampliate, tubes slender, longer than narrowly funnelform limbs, 3.5–5 mm, lobes narrowly triangular, ± 0.2 mm. |
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Phyllaries | in 3–5 series, broadly or narrowly lanceolate to subulate, unequal, bases indurate, margins hyaline, often purple-tinged, entire, green zones lanceolate (usually narrow, sometimes broad and covering most of distal portion), apices acute, faces glabrous. |
in 3–4 series, loose, linear to narrowly oblanceolate, subequal or outer sometimes longer, bases scarious, margins narrowly scarious proximally (outer), scabrous, green zones foliaceous (outer and mid) to lanceolate (inner), apices acute (rarely obtuse), mucronulate, faces glabrous. |
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Heads | (10–) 30–100(–150), in open, diffuse, paniculiform arrays. |
(disciform) in ± dense, narrow to pyramidal, paniculiform to racemiform arrays, branches decumbent (proximal) to ascending (distal); peduncles 0–1 cm, glabrous, bracts linear-lanceolate to linear, crowding heads. |
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Cypselae | light brown to purple, narrowly obovoid to fusiform, sometimes ± compressed, (1.2–)1.5–2.7(–3) mm, 5-nerved, faces sparsely strigillose; pappi white, (3–)3.5–5.5 mm. |
purple or grayish with purple streaks, obovoid to oblong-obovoid, ± compressed, 1.5–2.5 mm, 2–4-nerved (faint), faces hirsuto-strigose; pappi white or pinkish, 4–6 mm. |
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2n | = 14. |
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Symphyotrichum subulatum |
Symphyotrichum ciliatum |
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Phenology | Flowering Aug–Oct. | |||||||||||||||||
Habitat | Moist, brackish soils, prairies, steppes, salt marshes (Hudson Bay), summer-receding prairie ponds, open grounds in loess hills, irrigation channels, winter-salted highways, railroads, waste grounds | |||||||||||||||||
Elevation | 0–2000+ m (0–6600+ ft) | |||||||||||||||||
Distribution |
AL; AR; AZ; CA; CT; DE; FL; GA; IL; IN; KS; LA; MA; MD; ME; MI; MS; NC; NE; NH; NJ; NM; NV; NY; OH; OK; PA; RI; SC; TN; TX; UT; VA; NB; ON; Mexico; Central America; South America; West Indies; Bermuda [Widely introduced worldwide]
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AK; CO; IA; ID; IL; IN; KS; ME; MI; MN; MO; MT; ND; NE; NY; OH; OK; PA; SD; UT; WA; WI; WY; AB; BC; MB; NB; NT; ON; QC; SK; YT; n Eurasia (w to Rumania)
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Discussion | Varieties 5 (5 in the flora). Five varieties of Symphyotrichum subulatum are recognized for North America based on differences in chromosome number, ray lamina color and size, array shapes, number of series of ray florets, number of disc and ray florets, and other, more cryptic characters (S. D. Sundberg 2004). These varieties were treated as species by G. L. Nesom (1994b, 2005d). Variety ligulatum is apparently an obligate outcrosser and is the least variable variety (Sundberg). Other varieties are self-compatible, which could facilitate the fixation of mutations in populations. The five varieties are nearly entirely allopatric, and intermediates between pairs of varieties are not uncommon where they approach one another. Populations that are intermediate in ray lamina size between vars. ligulatum and parviflorum are widespread in southern Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and northern Mexico. Intermediates between vars. elongatum and parviflorum and between vars. elongatum and subulatum occur in Florida. Despite these observations, hybridization experiments and chromosome number differences suggest that the varieties are mostly reproductively isolated (S. D. Sundberg 1986, 2004). In older floras the name Aster exilis Elliott has been applied to Symphyotrichum subulatum vars. ligulatum and parviflorum. The status of this name is uncertain; the type specimen has been lost and the description of the plant is inadequate for determining the taxon to which the name should be applied (G. L. Nesom 1994b; S. D. Sundberg 2004). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Symphyotrichum ciliatum is introduced east of the Prairies in winter-salted wastegrounds and roadsides; it is native in northern Ontario, however, in the saltmarshes of the western shore of James Bay. It is native to the steppes of Eurasia, westward to Rumania. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 20, p. 480. | FNA vol. 20, p. 499. | ||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Asteraceae > tribe Astereae > Symphyotrichum > subg. Astropolium | Asteraceae > tribe Astereae > Symphyotrichum > subg. Symphyotrichum > sect. Conyzopsis | ||||||||||||||||
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Synonyms | Aster subulatus | Erigeron ciliatus, Aster angustus, Aster brachyactis, Brachyactis angusta, Brachyactis ciliata subsp. angusta | ||||||||||||||||
Name authority | (Michaux) G. L. Nesom: Phytologia 77: 293. (1995) | (Ledebour) G. L. Nesom: Phytologia 77: 277. (1995) | ||||||||||||||||
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