Symphyotrichum tenuifolium
Symphyotrichum molle
perennial saltmarsh American-aster, perennial saltmarsh aster
soft aster
1–5+, ascending to erect (often with purple or purplish brown areas, flexuous, wiry), little-branched, usually glabrous, sometimes hairy in lines distally.
1–5+, ascending to erect, densely puberulent to lanate, especially distally.
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.
thin, margins entire, apices acute, faces densely lanate-puberulent;
basal often withering by flowering, subpetiolate, blades oblanceolate, 15–50 × 5–20 mm, bases cuneate, margins entire, apices acute, faces densely lanate;
proximal cauline sessile or subpetiolate, blades oblanceolate, 50–150 × 10–25 mm, bases slightly clasping, rarely auriculate;
distal sessile, blades lanceolate, 30–100 × 10–20 mm, reduced distally, bases tapered, ± auriculate, apices acute.
0.6–4 (–6) cm, bracts 2–8, awl-shaped, grading into phyllaries.
densely cinereous to lanate, bracts 0–3, lanceolate to narrowly ovate.
narrowly turbinate, 4.1–9.5(–11) mm.
campanulate, 7–9 mm.
10–25;
corollas white or pink, laminae (4.5–)5–8.5(–9.5) × 1.2–2 mm.
20–35;
corollas violet, laminae 12–20 × 1–2 mm.
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.
35–70;
corollas yellow, 5–6.5 mm, lobes triangular, 0.5–1 mm.
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 4–5(–6) series, squarrose, oblong to oblanceolate, unequal, bases of outer indurate less than 1/3, margins entire, green zones oblong-linear to oblanceolate, apices acute or obtuse (sometimes minutely mucronate), faces densely puberulent to lanate.
(1–)3–20(–40), in open, diffuse, paniculiform arrays, branches patent.
in corymbiform to paniculiform arrays, branches to 20 cm.
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.
brown, cylindric to obovoid, not compressed, 2.5–3.5 mm, 4–5-nerved, faces hairy;
pappi whitish, 5–7 mm.
= 32.
Symphyotrichum tenuifolium
Symphyotrichum molle
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 molle is known only from the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming. Because of its densely hairy leaves, stems, and involucres, it was compared by its author with S. jessicae, a narrow endemic of southeastern Washington and adjacent Idaho.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Stems 1, rhizomes long; mid leaves (1.5–)3–6 mm wide; involucres 6–9.5(–11) mm; ray florets (12–)17–25; disc florets 25–45(–54), corollas (4–)4.7–6(–6.5) mm; cypselae 2.8–4(–4.5) mm; pappi 5–6.1 mm | var. tenuifolium |
1. Stems 1–5+ (clustered), rhizomes short; mid leaves (1–)1.5–2.7 mm wide; involucres 4.1–5.3 mm; ray florets 10–16; disc florets (10–)13–23, corollas 3.4–4.6 mm; cypselae 1.5–2(–2.5) mm; pappi 3–4.4 mm | var. aphyllum |
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