Symphyotrichum tenuifolium
Symphyotrichum nahanniense
perennial saltmarsh American-aster, perennial saltmarsh aster
Nahanni 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, ascending to decumbent (slender, green to reddish brown), glabrate or sparsely short woolly-pilose in lines or zones, more densely so 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.
(light green, abaxial sometimes becoming much darker) thin to firm, margins entire, scabrous, apices mucronulate, faces glabrous;
basal persistent or withering by flowering, petiolate, blades oblanceolate to short-spatulate, 10–130 × 2–8 mm, bases cuneate to attenuate, margins rarely sparsely serrulate, apices obtuse, faces glabrous;
proximal cauline persistent or withering by flowering, sessile, blades oblanceolate to linear lanceolate, 13–60 × 2–6 mm, bases ± clasping, apices acute;
distal sessile, blades linear to linear-lanceolate, 10–36 × 1–4 mm, reduced distally, bases subauriculate, subclasping to ± clasping.
0.6–4 (–6) cm, bracts 2–8, awl-shaped, grading into phyllaries.
10–70 mm, sparsely to moderately short-strigose, bracts 0–10, lanceolate, often foliaceous, reduced distally.
narrowly turbinate, 4.1–9.5(–11) mm.
cylindro-campanulate, 4.7–7.4 mm.
10–25;
corollas white or pink, laminae (4.5–)5–8.5(–9.5) × 1.2–2 mm.
15–41;
corollas white to pale rose, often becoming rose-violet, laminae 5–13 × 0.7–1.8 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.
20–60;
corollas yellow turning reddish with age, 3.7–6.6 mm, tubes shorter than funnelform throats, lobes erect to spreading, lanceolate, 0.4–0.8 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 3–4 series, outer spatulate, inner lanceolate, ± unequal to subequal, bases indurate, margins reddish, papery, erose-ciliate, green zones lanceolate, apices acute, faces glabrous.
(1–)3–20(–40), in open, diffuse, paniculiform arrays, branches patent.
usually borne singly or in open, paniculiform arrays (sometimes terminating lateral branches arising from decumbent stems or from proximal stem branches), branches few.
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.
tan (nerves stramineous), obovoid, compressed, 2–3 mm, 3–5-nerved, faces strigillose;
pappi white, 4–6.5 mm.
= 16.
Symphyotrichum tenuifolium
Symphyotrichum nahanniense
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.)
Of conservation concern.
Symphyotrichum nahanniense is known only from the South Nahanni River (Mackenzie Mountains), Nahanni National Park.
(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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