Flora of North America species comparison

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Eurybia avita

Alexander's Rock aster
Habit Plants 30–50(–80) cm; in clumps, eglandular; rhizomes short, creeping, ± woody in age.
Stems

1–5+, erect to ascending, simple, strict, slender, stiff, proximally glabrous or glabrate, distally hirtello-puberulent.
Leaves

basal and cauline, firm, blades (1-nerved) linear to lance-linear or oblong-linear (grasslike), 25–140+ × 2–5 mm, ± coriaceous, bases sheathing, margins entire to remotely serrulate-spinose, indurate, remotely scabrous, spines thickened, apices acute, revolute, faces glabrous;

basal and proximal cauline often withering by flowering, bases marcescent, ± long-petiolate;

mid and distal progressively sessile and reduced.
Peduncles

densely hirtellous;

bracts 1–2, usually immediately subtending heads.
Involucres

cylindro-campanulate, 7–9 mm, shorter than pappi.
Ray florets

8–20;

corollas bluish white to lavender or deep violet, 5–10 × 1–1.7 mm.
Disc florets

15–45;

corollas yellow, 5.5–7 mm, barely ampliate, tubes shorter than narrowly funnelform throats, lobes erect, triangular, 0.6–0.7 mm.
Phyllaries

30–55+ in 4–5 series, unequal, chartaceous, bases indurate, margins narrowly hyaline, scabrous, erose, fimbriate, apices appressed or reflexed, acute, sometimes acuminate (some outer), mucronate, marginally thickened, faces glabrous;

outer lance-oblong, rounded, apical zones dark green, flat;

inner linear-oblong, apical zones pale green, restricted to broadly acute tips.
Heads

3–15+ in narrow, flat-topped corymbiform arrays.
Cypselae

tan, fusiform, ± compressed, ca. 5 mm, ribs 7–10(–12) (stramineous, broad), strigillose;

pappi of cinnamon to sordid bristles 5.5–6 mm, equaling disc corollas.
2n

= 18.

Eurybia avita
Phenology Flowering late summer–early fall.
Habitat Shallow sandy soils around edges of granite flatrock outcrops
Elevation 100–500 m (300–1600 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
GA; NC; SC
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Of conservation concern.

Eurybia avita is known from Stone Mountain (the type location, where it is now extirpated according to R. Kral 1983, vol. 2) and granite flatrocks in Georgia, and from Pickens County in South Carolina, where it is imperiled; it is presumed extirpated from North Carolina (www.natureserve.org). Kral mapped the species; he underlined its similarities to both E. surculosa and E. paludosa and the need for further studies of its relationships.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 20, p. 378.
Parent taxa Asteraceae > tribe Astereae > Eurybia
Sibling taxa
E. chlorolepis, E. compacta, E. conspicua, E. divaricata, E. eryngiifolia, E. furcata, E. hemispherica, E. integrifolia, E. jonesiae, E. macrophylla, E. merita, E. mirabilis, E. paludosa, E. radula, E. radulina, E. saxicastelli, E. schreberi, E. sibirica, E. spectabilis, E. spinulosa, E. surculosa, E. ×herveyi
Synonyms Aster avitus
Name authority (Alexander) G. L. Nesom: Phytologia 77: 259. (1995)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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