Sericocarpus asteroides (L.) B.S.P - Toothed White-topped Aster


 

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Sericocarpus asteroides - (image 1 of 4)

 

Taxonomy

Family: Asteraceae

 

Synonymous with Aster paternus

Habitat

Dry woods, in sandy, rocky, or clay soil.

Associates

 

 Distribution

ME and VT to GA, west to southern OH, WV, eastern KY, eastern TN, and eastern AL.

Morphology

Perennial from a branched caudex; stems 15-60 cm, scabrous-puberulent in the inflorescence; leaves ciliate-margined and sometimes hairy as well, at least some evidently toothed; basal and lower cauline leaves usually enlarged and persistent, broadly oblanceolate to obovate, elliptic, or subrotund, petiolate; cauline leaves becoming sessile upwards, scarcely to strongly reduced; inflorescence corymbiform, flat-topped, heads in small glomerules; involucres glabrous, narrow, 5-9 mm; involucral bracts imbricate, broad, at least the outer ones with short spreading green tips; rays 4-8, white to pink, 4-8 mm; disk flowers 9-20, 4-5.5 mm, white or yellowish, seldom lavender; pappus bristles usually reddish, obscurely clavellate above.

Notes

Flowers July to August

Wetland indicator: NA

There are only five species in the strictly North American genus Sericocarpus, three of which occur in the eastern U.S. Sericocarpus linifolius occurs as far north as New Hampshire but is more common in the south and S. torifolius is only found along the coastal plain as far north as North Carolina.

References

Gleason, Henry A. and A. Cronquist. 1991. Manual of Vascular Plants of Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada. Second Ed.
The New York Botanical Garden. Bronx, NY

 


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 Michael Hough © 2018