Symphyotrichum puniceum (L.) Á. Löve & D. Löve - Purple-stemmed Aster


 

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Symphyotrichum puniceum - (image 1 of 4)

 

Taxonomy

Family: Asteraceae

Habitat

Swamps, marshes, wet fields, ditches.

Associates

 

Distribution

Newfoundland to Saskatchewan, south to VA, IL, and NE, and in mountains to GA and AL.

Morphology

Herbaceous perennial from a short stout rhizome or caudex, sometimes with short thick stolons as well; stem stout, 50-250 cm, simple or branched above, uniformly spreading hairy at least below the inflorescence and spreading hispid (sometimes glabrous) toward the base; leaves mainly cauline, sessile, auriculate-clasping, distantly serrate to entire, scabrous to subglabrous above, glabrous or spreading-hairy along the midrib below, lanceolate to oblong or elliptic-oblong; heads in a leafy inflorescence; involucre 6-12 mm; involucral bracts slender and loose, scarcely imbricate, at least the inner long-acuminate to attenuate and sometimes recurved, the outer sometimes enlarged and leafy but still narrow; rays 30-60, blue to pink or white, 7-18 mm.

Notes

Flowers August to October

Wetland Indicator: NA

This species is a common, rather showy species of wetlands. It is closely related to the less common and not always recognized S. firmum.

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