Doellingeria infirma (Michx.) Greene (redirected from: Aster infirmus)
Family: Asteraceae
[Aster humilis Willd.,  more...]
Doellingeria infirma image
Tracey Slotta  

Plants 40-120 cm (crowns short, woody). Stems 1, ascending to erect, slightly to strongly flexuous, striate, glabrous. Cauline leaves: mid and distal not crowded, blades broadly lanceolate to oblanceolate, 50-130 × 15-45 mm, reduced and narrower distally, bases cuneate, margins flat to ± involute, finely ciliate, apices acuminate, faces glabrous or sparsely hairy. Heads (1-)3-33(-78). Peduncles 1-10 mm (leafless or nearly so), sparsely to moderately canescent; bracts linear-lanceolate to broadly lanceolate. Involucres 3.8-6.8 mm. Phyllaries in 4-5 series, midveins usually swollen and translucent, apices narrowly rounded , glabrate. Rays (3-)4-8(-11); laminae 6-12(-14.5) × 1-3.3 mm. Disc florets 4-13(-20); corollas 4-7 mm, lobes 2.5-3.5 mm, 50-75% of limbs. Cypselae 1.8-3.8 mm, 6-10-ribbed, glabrous, rarely sparsely strigose, sometimes sparsely glandular; pappi: outer 0.5-1 mm, inner 3.9-5 mm. 2n = 18.

Flowering mid summer-early fall. Rich loam and dry rocky soils, deciduous woods, mountains and adjacent plateaus; 10-100 m; Ala., Conn., Del., Fla., Ga., Ky., Md., Mass., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Ohio, Pa., R.I., S.C., Tenn., Va., W.Va.

Doellingeria infirma is found in the Appalachian Mountains, the Piedmont and adjacent plateaus, to northern Florida.

Plants 4-11 dm; stems glabrous, mostly solitary from a short, fibrous-rooted crown; lvs chiefly or all cauline, entire, reticulate-veiny, glabrous or scabrous above, glabrous or more often short-hirsute along the midrib and main veins beneath, seldom sparsely short-hairy across the whole lower surface, mostly elliptic or elliptic-ovate, (3-)6-13 נ1.5-5 cm, 2-4(-5) times as long as wide, acute or acuminate, with shortly petiolar or subsessile base, the reduced lower ones obovate or broadly oblanceolate and rounded or obtuse; heads (2-)5-35(-75) in an open, sparsely or scarcely leafy, corymbiform infl; invol 4.5-7 mm, glabrous or puberulent, its bracts well imbricate, relatively firm and broad, the larger ones commonly 1 mm wide or a bit more, often longitudinally striate; heads 25-45-fld, the rays 5-9, white, 6-10 mm, broad and showy, the disk-fls ca 18-36, ochroleucous; achenes glabrous; pappus double, the inner of rather firm, sordid bristles, most of which are clavellate-thickened above, the outer less than 1 mm; 2n=18. Woods; Mass. to Va., W.Va., and Ky., s. to Tenn., Ga., and Ala. (Doellingeria i.)

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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Doellingeria infirma image
Tracey Slotta  
Doellingeria infirma image
Tracey Slotta