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aster à rameaux étalés, white wood-aster

Habit Plants 28–90(–120) cm, in ± dense clones (lacking sterile rosettes); rhizomes branched, elongate, becoming woody.
Stems

1, erect, simple, flexuous, glabrate to sparsely puberulent proximally, densely puberulent distally.

Leaves

basal and cauline, thin, margins sharply serrate, teeth (6–15 per side) mucronulate, ciliate, apices acuminate, abaxial faces sparsely strigose or villous, particularly villous along veins, adaxial glabrescent to sparsely strigose, veins sparsely stipitate-glandular;

basal and proximal withering by flowering, petiolate (petioles 20–70 mm), blades ovate, 19–65 × 17–60 mm, basal smaller than proximal, bases cordate (sinuses narrow, curved);

cauline petiolate, petioles often ± winged (15–70 mm), blades ovate, 20–200 × 10–100 mm, bases cordate to rounded;

distal (arrays) usually sessile, sometimes subpetiolate, blades ovate to lanceolate, 5–20 × 1–8 mm, bases rounded.

Peduncles

to 1.5 cm, densely hairy, eglandular;

bracts 0(–2).

Involucres

cylindro-campanulate, 4.2–6 mm, much shorter than pappi.

Ray florets

5–10(–12);

corollas white, 6–12 × 1.5–2.2 mm.

Disc florets

12–19(–25);

corollas yellow, 4.1–4.8(–5.5) mm, abruptly ampliate, tubes (2.3–2.6 mm) longer than campanulate throats (0.9–1.2 mm), lobes reflexed, lanceolate, 0.7–1.4 mm.

Phyllaries

25–30 in 4–5 series, inner purplish distally, oblong (outer) to lanceolate or linear-lanceolate (inner), strongly unequal, bases indurate, green zones in distal 1/2 (outer) to 1/3 or along distal midveins (inner), margins narrowly scarious, densely fimbriate-ciliate, apices rounded to acute, faces sparsely hairy, sometimes sparsely stipitate-glandular;

outer 0.7–1.5 mm wide, lengths seldom more than 2.5 times widths.

Heads

4–50(–100+) in ± flat-topped corymbiform arrays.

Cypselae

brown, cylindro-obovoid, slightly compressed, 2.6–3.8 mm, ribs 7–10 (tan to stramineous), faces sparsely strigillose;

pappi of reddish to cream-colored (fine, barbellulate, sometimes apically ± clavate) bristles 3.7–5 mm, equaling or longer than disc corollas.

2n

= 18.

Eurybia divaricata

Phenology Flowering late summer–fall.
Habitat Dry to mesic, eastern deciduous and mixed deciduous woods, edges and clearings, roadsides
Elevation 0–1200(–1700) m (0–3900(–5600) ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AL; CT; DC; DE; GA; KY; MA; MD; ME; MI; NC; NH; NJ; NY; OH; PA; RI; SC; TN; VA; VT; WV; ON; QC [Introduced in Europe (Netherlands)]
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Eurybia divaricata is a mainly Appalachian element of the eastern North American deciduous forest. It is often confused with Eurybia chlorolepis (see W. F. Lamboy 1992 for distinction between the two species), E. schreberi, or Symphyotrichum cordifolium. Lamboy provided a map of the species.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 20, p. 374.
Parent taxa Asteraceae > tribe Astereae > Eurybia
Sibling taxa
E. avita, E. chlorolepis, E. compacta, E. conspicua, 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 divaricatus, Aster boykinii, Aster castaneus, Aster corymbosus, Aster corymbosus var. alatus, Aster excavatus, Aster flexilis, Aster stilettiformis, Aster tenebrosus, Biotia corymbosa, Biotia corymbosa var. alata, Biotia macrophylla var. divaricata, E. corymbosa
Name authority (Linnaeus) G. L. Nesom: Phytologia 77: 259. (1995)
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