Plants 40-120 cm. Stems sparsely (proximally) to densely hirsute distally. Leaves firm, basal and proximal long-petiolate, petioles ± winged; proximal cauline blade bases ± cordate or truncate, sometimes obliquely. Heads in ample, paniculiform arrays with divaricate or ascending, bracteate, often racemiform branches. Peduncles ± secund, 0-4 cm, bracteate. Involucres campanulate, (3.5-)4.5-7 mm. Ray corollas usually bright blue, light purple, bluish violet, or lavender, sometimes white. Cypselae glabrous. 2n = 16, 32.

Flowering Aug-Oct. Mostly shaded, loamy or rocky, mesic to dry soils, open deciduous woods, clearings, thickets, stream banks and edges of swamps, sometimes roadsides or ditches; 10-500+ m; Ala., Ark., Ga., Ill., Ind., Iowa, Kans., Ky., La., Md., Mich., Minn., Miss., Mo., Nebr., Ohio, Okla., Pa., Tenn., Tex., W.Va., Wis.

Variety drummondii is often confused with Symphyotrichum urophyllum, a usually white-rayed species with erect array branches. Hybridization has been reported with S. urophyllum, as well as with S. shortii or S. undulatum (the name Aster ×finkii Rydberg possibly applies to such hybrids).

Very local in dry, open woods. Reported from the Calumet District by Peattie. This species seems to be merely a pubescent form of the preceding one but its range does not coincide with that of A. sagittifolius.

Stouter than no. 31 [Aster sagittifolius Willd.]; stems usually densely hairy at least above the middle with minute, stiffly spreading hairs; lvs relatively firm, shallowly toothed, scabrous above, densely pubescent with short spreading hairs beneath, the lowest ones ovate or lance-ovate, acuminate, cordate, 6-14 נ2.5-6.5 cm, long-petiolate, those above progressively less cordate (or the upper merely broadly rounded at base) and with shorter, usually broadly winged petiole; infl paniculiform, with spreading or ascending, bracteate branches, the heads often numerous, on bracteate peduncles usually well under 1 cm; glabrous or puberulent, 4.5-7 mm, its bracts firm, imbricate, sharply acute or acuminate but with broader and proportionately longer chartaceous base than in no. 31, the green tip tending to be elongate-rhombic; rays 10-20, bright blue, 5-10 mm; achenes sparsely short-hairy or glabrous; 2n=16, 32, ?36. Typically in clearings and open woods; s. O. to Minn., s. to w. Ky., Miss., La., Kans., and Tex.

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

©The New York Botanical Garden. All rights reserved. Used by permission.