Symphyotrichum laeve (L.) Á. Löve & D. Löve (redirected from: Aster expansus)
Family: Asteraceae
[Aster expansus ,  more...]
Symphyotrichum laeve image

Perennials (15-)20-70(-120) cm, cespitose; stoutly short-rhizom­atous, with thick, woody caudices or a few, long rhizomes. Stems 1-5+, erect (straight, glaucous, sometimes reddish proximally), glabrous, sometimes sparsely hirsute distally. Leaves (glaucous) thick, firm, ± fleshy, margins crenate-serrate or -serrulate or entire, scabridulous, apices mucronulate, faces glabrous; basal usually withering by flowering or sometimes persistent (var. purpuratum), petiolate (petioles ± winged, bases dilated, sheathing), blades spatulate or oblong to ovate or lanceolate-ovate, 30-200 × 10-25(-30) mm, bases attenuate or cuneate to rounded, margins crenate-serrate to serrulate, apices acute to obtuse or rounded; proximal cauline often withering by flowering, petiolate or subsessile or sessile (petioles narrowly to broadly winged, clasping), blades ovate or oblong-ovate to lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, sometimes ± panduriform, (40-)80-150(-180) × (10-)20-45 mm, bases attenuate to rounded or ± shallowly auriculate-clasping, margins entire or shallowly crenate-serrate, minutely scabrous, apices acute or obtuse, callus-pointed; distal sessile, blades lance-ovate or lanceolate to linear, 7-45 × 1-14 mm, progressively reduced distally (abruptly so in arrays), bases auriculate and ± clasping to rounded, margins entire. Heads in broad, sometimes ± flat-topped, paniculiform arrays, branches stiffly ascending (rarely arching), leafy with small, gradually reduced branch leaves. Peduncles 0.2-6+ cm, glaucous, glabrous or puberulent in lines, bracts 3-6, densely spaced, subulate or linear-lanceolate to linear, subclasping, apices sometimes purplish, grading into phyllaries. Involucres campanulate to cylindro-campanulate, (4.2-)5-7(-8) mm. Phyllaries in 4-6 series, appressed, subulate or lanceolate (outer) to oblong-lanceolate or linear-lancolate or -oblanceolate, unequal (sometimes appearing subequal), bases indurate 1 / 2 - 3 / 4 , margins scarious, erose, hyaline, ciliolate distally, green zones mostly diamond-shaped to ± lanceolate (some inner, or most in var. geyeri), apices acute to acuminate, sometimes ± obtuse, red-mucronate or apiculate, faces glabrous. Ray florets (11-)13-23(-34); corollas usually pale to dark blue or purple, seldom white, laminae (6-)7.2-11.3(-14.6) × 1.5-2.5 mm. Disc florets (17-)19-33(-43); corollas yellow turning purplish red, 3.5-6.1 mm, tubes sligh

Plants 3-10 dm from a short, stout rhizome or branched caudex, sometimes with short, slender, creeping red rhizomes as well; herbage glabrous except occasionally for some puberulent lines in the infl, commonly ±glaucous; lvs mainly cauline, thick and firm, highly variable in size and shape, but the larger ones more than 1 cm (often more than 2.5 cm) wide and often less than 5 times as long as wide, entire or sometimes toothed, sessile and ±strongly auriculate-clasping, the lower tapering to a winged petiole and scarcely clasping, those of the infl reduced and often bract-like, broadest at the clasping or subclasping base; heads several or many in an open infl; invol 5-9 mm, its firm, appressed, acute bracts conspicuously imbricate in several series, with short, diamond-shaped green tip mostly 1-2 mm; rays 15-30, blue or purple, 8-15 mm; achenes glabrous or nearly so; pappus usually reddish; 2n=48. Open, usually dry places; Me. to B.C., s. to Ga., Ark., and N.M. Most of our plants are var. laevis, as described above. The western var. geyeri A. Gray, with the invol bracts fewer-seriate, narrower, and more sharply pointed, their green tips more elongate, extends into our range from Minn. to Mo. (A. geyeri; A. laeviformis)

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

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Symphyotrichum laeve image
Symphyotrichum laeve image
Symphyotrichum laeve image
Frank Mayfield  
Symphyotrichum laeve image
Frank Mayfield  
Symphyotrichum laeve image
Frank Mayfield  
Symphyotrichum laeve image
Frank Mayfield  
Symphyotrichum laeve image
Frank Mayfield  
Symphyotrichum laeve image
Frank Mayfield