Symphyotrichum tenuifolium |
Symphyotrichum ciliatum |
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perennial saltmarsh American-aster, perennial 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 | Perennials, (20–)40–60(–100) cm, colonial or cespitose; rhizoma-tous. | Annuals, 7–70+ cm. | ||||
Stems | 1–5+, ascending to erect (often with purple or purplish brown areas, flexuous, wiry), little-branched, usually glabrous, sometimes hairy in lines distally. |
1, ascending to erect (straight), bluish yellowish green, often red-tinged, ± succulent, glabrous. |
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Leaves | thick (fleshy), margins entire, faces glabrous; basal withering by flowering (new winter rosettes appearing at flowering), petiolate (petioles sheathing), blades ovate or oblanceolate, 15–20 × 5–15 mm, bases cuneate, apices rounded; proximal cauline withering by flowering, usually sessile, blades lanceolate, linear-lanceolate or -oblanceolate, to linear, 7–80(–150) × 1–6 (–12) mm, bases attenuate, margins entire, apices acuminate to acute; distal sessile, blades narrowly lanceolate to subulate, 10–110 × 0.5–5 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 | 0.6–4 (–6) cm, bracts 2–8, awl-shaped, grading into phyllaries. |
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Involucres | narrowly turbinate, 4.1–9.5(–11) mm. |
narrowly campanulate, 5–7(–11) mm. |
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Ray florets | 10–25; corollas white or pink, laminae (4.5–)5–8.5(–9.5) × 1.2–2 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 | 25–45(–54); corollas yellow becoming purplish, 3.4–6(–6.8) mm, tubes shorter than to equaling the narrowly funnelform throats (sparsely hairy at base), lobes ± erect, narrowly triangular, 0.5–0.8 mm. |
± 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 4–5 series, lanceolate to subulate, bases indurate, rounded, margins hyaline, often tinged with purple, entire, green zones spatulate to oblanceolate-rhombic, apices acute, adaxial faces glabrous or minutely hairy distally. |
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 | (1–)3–20(–40), in open, diffuse, paniculiform arrays, branches patent. |
(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, narrowly obovoid to fusiform, sometimes ± compressed, 1.5–4(–4.5) mm, 5–6-nerved, faces sparsely strigillose; pappi tawny to white, 3–6.1 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 tenuifolium |
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; CT; DE; FL; GA; LA; MA; MD; ME; MS; NC; NH; NJ; NY; RI; SC; TX; VA; West Indies
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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 2 (2 in the flora). Along the Gulf of Mexico Coast in central and northern peninsular Florida, vars. tenuifolium and aphyllum intergrade in nearly all characters (S. D. Sundberg 2004). G. L. Nesom (2005d) treated the varieties as species. (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. 479. | FNA vol. 20, p. 499. | ||||
Parent taxa | Asteraceae > tribe Astereae > Symphyotrichum > subg. Astropolium | Asteraceae > tribe Astereae > Symphyotrichum > subg. Symphyotrichum > sect. Conyzopsis | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | Aster tenuifolius | Erigeron ciliatus, Aster angustus, Aster brachyactis, Brachyactis angusta, Brachyactis ciliata subsp. angusta | ||||
Name authority | (Linnaeus) G. L. Nesom: Phytologia 77: 293. (1995) | (Ledebour) G. L. Nesom: Phytologia 77: 277. (1995) | ||||
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