Symphyotrichum tenuifolium |
Symphyotrichum tenuifolium var. aphyllum |
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perennial saltmarsh American-aster, perennial saltmarsh aster |
Brace's aster |
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Habit | Perennials, (20–)40–60(–100) cm, colonial or cespitose; rhizoma-tous. | Plants (20–)30–80(–90) cm, clustered; short-rhizomatous. | ||||
Stems | 1–5+, ascending to erect (often with purple or purplish brown areas, flexuous, wiry), little-branched, usually glabrous, sometimes hairy in lines distally. |
1–5+. |
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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. |
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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. |
4.1–5 (–5.3) 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. |
10–16. |
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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. |
(10–)13–23; corollas 3.4–4.2(–4.6) 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. |
lanceolate to subulate. |
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Heads | (1–)3–20(–40), in open, diffuse, paniculiform arrays, branches patent. |
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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. |
1.5–2(–2.5) mm; pappi 3–4.4 mm. |
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Mid | leaves (1–)1.5–2.7 mm wide. |
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2n | = 10. |
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Symphyotrichum tenuifolium |
Symphyotrichum tenuifolium var. aphyllum |
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Phenology | Flowering Aug–Dec(–Feb). | |||||
Habitat | Coastal salt marshes, brackish marshes, low pine woods | |||||
Elevation | 0–10 m (0–0 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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FL; West Indies (Bahamas, Cuba) |
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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.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 20, p. 479. | FNA vol. 20, p. 480. | ||||
Parent taxa | Asteraceae > tribe Astereae > Symphyotrichum > subg. Astropolium | Asteraceae > tribe Astereae > Symphyotrichum > subg. Astropolium > Symphyotrichum tenuifolium | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | Aster tenuifolius | Aster tenuifolius var. aphyllus, Aster bracei, S. bracei | ||||
Name authority | (Linnaeus) G. L. Nesom: Phytologia 77: 293. (1995) | (R. W. Long) S. D. Sundberg: Sida 21: 905. (2004) | ||||
Web links |