Symphyotrichum drummondii var. drummondii Lindl. (redirected from: Aster drummondii var. drummondii)
Family: Asteraceae
[Aster drummondii Lindl.,  more...]
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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).

From Flora of Indiana (1940) by Charles C. Deam

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.

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